Contextual bias in forensic toxicology decisions: A follow‐up empirical study from China

Abstract The impact of contextual bias has been demonstrated repeatedly across forensic domains; however, research on this topic in forensic toxicology is very limited. In our previous study, experimental data from only one context version were compared with the actual forensic biasing casework. As a follow‐up, this controlled experiment with 159 forensic toxicology practitioners was conducted, to test whether knowledge of different contextual information influenced their forensic decision‐making. Participants in different context groups were tasked to identify testing strategies for carbon monoxide and opiate drugs. The results of chi‐squared tests for their selections and two context groups exhibited statistically significant differences ( p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). These findings show contextual information can bias forensic toxicology decisions about testing strategies, despite it is a relatively objective domain in forensic science.