Os gatilhos mentais e a ordenação linear como estratégias de argumentação no Tribunal do Júri

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to investigate the possible influence of mental triggers on jurors’ decision-making in three jury trials. Specifically, the aim is to identify and describe the most recurrent mental triggers, especially in the oral argument phase of the trial, as well as to observe, based on the sub-principle of linear ordering, whether the choice of the arrangement of certain information in the syntactic chain can be used as an argumentative guide. This study presents a bibliographic and documentary research typology, qualitative and quantitative methods, and deductive reasoning resulting from an analytical approach to the data. Assuming that, according to Lima (2006, p. 244), “the jury’s decision is not the result of information alone, but, above all, of persuasion”, the following research problem arises: How could mental triggers, as persuasive resources, influence jurors’ decision-making in a popular jury trial? The corpus consists of the transcription of excerpts from three jury court hearings – a body of the Judiciary responsible for judging intentional crimes against life, when there is intent to kill – one of which was accessed by the documentary Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Time a Crime. The research is inserted in the theoretical scope of Cognitive and Functional Linguistics and is based mainly on the following authors: Aristotle (2011 [384-322 BC]); Givón (2001); Lima-Hernandes (2006); Cialdini (2009, 2012 [2021]); Damásio (2011); Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (2014); Furtado da Cunha and Tavares (2016); Divino (2020). The results point to the fact that mental triggers, especially authority, sympathy, commitment and coherence, as well as changes in linear ordering, can be used efficiently as resources to influence decision-making.