Oral Presentation O 7.1 Rape e Myth Effects on Juror De ecisions in Deeliberations o of Rape Casess: How w Rape Mythss Affect Jury D Deliberationss Lorren Pacck and Greg SShaw* Wesleyan Un Political Scie ence Departm ment, Illinois W niversity Memberss of juries hold d bias, wheth her implicitly o or explicitly. TThis study deetermines that jury membeers do not alw ways change ttheir bias afte er deliberatio ons, especiallyy in rape casees, but that so ome may change if they are cchallenged. Th hrough pre‐te ests, jury deliberations, annd post‐tests this study mo onitored the participan nts’ biases in order to dete ermine if thesse biases affe cted their behavior duringg the deliberaation. This studyy found that p participants tended to selff‐censor, supppressing theirr rape biases,, instead of sttating them explicitly to the ggroup. Howevver, many of tthe participannts did changge their mindss on the rapee ed to internal ize an undersstanding of w why the mythss they myths thaat were involvved in the casse and seeme had endorsed earlier w were wrong. Oral Presentation O 7.2 LGBTQIA+ Cam L mpus Climate e at a Small LLiberal Arts U University: An Explloratory Stud dy with the A im of Improvving th he Environme ent for Queeer Students n and Meghaan Burke* Mary Breede M Sociologgy Departmen nt, Illinois Weesleyan University Research suggests thatt a significantt portion of LG GBTQIA+ indiividuals reporrt that their sexual orientaation and/or ge ender identityy play a substantial role in choosing wh ich postsecon ndary instituttion to attend d; thus, it is incumbent upon institutio ons for higherr education too assess theirr respective campus climattes. This proje ect evaluates LGBTQIA+ campus climate e at a small, pprivate, Midw western liberaal arts universsity. Utilizing aa grounded th heory approacch, I interview wed my queeer‐identified cclassmates – sselected via aa combination of strateggic and snowb ball sampling – about theirr experiencess on campus. Through thesse discussion ns, I gained a better underrstanding of q queer studentts’ experiencees within the classroom, extracurriicular activitie es, living spacces, and elsew where througghout the insttitution. Findiings include aa divide bettween cisgender and transsgender or no onbinary partticipants’ percceptions of caampus climatte, as well as inccongruence in n institutionaal policy and sstudents’ livedd experiences. The inform mation I gleaned from thesse interviews was then use ed to suggest ways for the university to o better servee its LGBTQIA++ populatio on.
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