The value of visuals in trial work is well established, in
that images emphasize and clarify testimony or evidence.
However, new research
shows that visuals have impact in yet another way, which can be put to powerful
use in the courtroom.
Scientists in New Zealand and Canada examined what Comedy
Central satirist Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness” –the feeling that something
is true. What they discovered is that when a statement, whether true or not, is
accompanied by a simply decorative photograph [i.e., one that does not reveal
the validity of the claim], it is more likely to be perceived as true. People
simply “feel” that the statement is more likely to be true, by virtue of the
accompanying visual.
So the statement “The liquid metal inside a thermometer is
magnesium” accompanied by a picture of a thermometer (which revealed nothing
about the metal inside), was believed to be true far more often than the same
statement not accompanied by a decorative photograph.
What does this mean for you? That even when you don’t have a
visual or graphic that directly elucidates testimony/evidence you are confident
is credible, it’s worth attaching a visual that in some way relates to the
testimony/evidence. You thus have greater chances of engaging jurors’ feeling
that the testimony is truthful, as you know it to be.
