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An Empirical Analysis of “Tort Tales”

How Cultural Memes Influence Attitudes on Tort Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Neil Malhotra
Neil Malhotra*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
*
Contact the corresponding author, Neil Malhotra, at neilm@stanford.edu.
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Abstract

This research note investigates how “tort tales”—cultural memes about the American civil legal system—affect citizens’ attitudes on tort reform. While legal scholarship has extensively analyzed “tort tales” using qualitative approaches, this analysis introduces quantitative methods from political psychology. I explore a case study of Stella Liebeck, the woman who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald’s. An experiment embedded in an original survey of 742 Americans shows that exogenously providing people with information about the legal urban legend increased support for tort reform. Further, those with incorrect interpretations of the story are most supportive of tort reform initiatives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Spring 2015 , pp. 149 - 166
Copyright
© 2015 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

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