Jones Ashley C T, Haga Morgan R
School of Psychology, The University of Southern Mississippi, College Drive #5025, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Aug 6;15(8):1071. doi: 10.3390/bs15081071.
Sloman and Rabb found support for the existence of the community of knowledge (CK) effect, which occurs when individuals are more likely to report understanding and being able to explain even fake scientific information when told that an expert understands the information. To date, no studies have been conducted that attempted to replicate original findings, let alone test the presence of the CK effect in realistic, legal scenarios. Therefore, Study One replicated original CK effect studies in a jury-eligible M-Turk sample ( = 291) using both Sloman and Rabb's experimental stimuli as well as new stimuli. Study Two then tested the presence of the CK effect using scientific testimony in a mock court hearing from a forensic evaluator ( = 396). Not only did the CK effect improve laypeople's perceptions of the scientific information in court, but it also improved their perceptions of the expert witness's credibility, increased the weight assigned to the scientific information, and increased the weight assigned to the expert testimony. This effect was mediated by participants' perceived similarity to the expert, supporting the theory behind the CK effect. These studies have important implications for the use of scientific information in court, which are discussed.
斯洛曼和拉布发现了知识共同体（CK）效应存在的证据。当个体被告知一位专家理解某条信息时，他们更有可能声称自己理解并能够解释这条即使是虚假的科学信息，这时就会出现CK效应。迄今为止，尚未有研究试图重复最初的研究结果，更不用说在现实的法律场景中测试CK效应的存在了。因此，研究一在一个符合陪审团资格的亚马逊土耳其机器人样本（N = 291）中重复了最初的CK效应研究，使用了斯洛曼和拉布的实验刺激以及新的刺激。然后，研究二在一场模拟法庭听证会上，利用法医评估员的科学证词（N = 396）测试了CK效应的存在。CK效应不仅提高了外行人士在法庭上对科学信息的认知，还提高了他们对专家证人可信度的认知，增加了赋予科学信息的权重，并增加了赋予专家证词的权重。这种效应是由参与者感知到的与专家的相似性介导的，这支持了CK效应背后的理论。本文讨论了这些研究对法庭上科学信息使用的重要意义。
