Book contents
- Law and Mind
- Law and the Cognitive Sciences
- Law and Mind
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- I Metatheory and Methodology
- II Ontology and Epistemology
- 6 Cognitive Science and the Nature of Law
- 7 The Architecture of the Legal Mind
- 8 The Psychology of the Trial Judge
- 9 Institutional Design and the Psychology of the Trial Judge
- 10 Bias at the Surface or the Core? A Comment on the Psychology of the Trial Judge
- III Legal Doctrine and Cognitive Sciences
- IV Evidence
- V Dissenting Opinions
- References
8 - The Psychology of the Trial Judge
from II - Ontology and Epistemology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2021
- Law and Mind
- Law and the Cognitive Sciences
- Law and Mind
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- I Metatheory and Methodology
- II Ontology and Epistemology
- 6 Cognitive Science and the Nature of Law
- 7 The Architecture of the Legal Mind
- 8 The Psychology of the Trial Judge
- 9 Institutional Design and the Psychology of the Trial Judge
- 10 Bias at the Surface or the Core? A Comment on the Psychology of the Trial Judge
- III Legal Doctrine and Cognitive Sciences
- IV Evidence
- V Dissenting Opinions
- References
Summary
The chapter on the psychology of the trial consists of three sections. The first section examines the question of whether the general insights of psychology and behavioral economics can be applied to trial judges, or whether, by virtue of their special training and experience or some other reason, trial judges are different. The second section surveys the relatively scant behavioral literature on judging and places it in the larger context of non-judge decision making. It does so by considering four well-studied “heuristics,” or cognitive shortcuts that allow people to make quick, intuitive decisions with little or no deliberation, but that can sometimes also result in errors in reasoning. The four heuristics considered are: anchoring, hindsight, compromise and contrast, and representativeness. The third section finishes the chapter with a series of reflections about specific challenges the author has thought about over the twenty-nine years that he has been a trial judge, coupled with a few suggestions about how the system might better accommodate some of those challenges.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law and MindA Survey of Law and the Cognitive Sciences, pp. 165 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021