Marco Brigaglia, Cognitive Biases in Adjudication

Cognitive Biases and Adjudication

Marco Brigaglia, Cognitive Biases in Adjudication

This lecture provides an introduction to cognitive biases and their impact on judicial decision-making. A famous study on the effects of mealtimes on judges’ decisions and a series of studies on the so-called ‘anchoring effect’ will be reported and discussed.

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Cognitive Biases in Adjudication (1)

1 / 3

One of the following statements is false. Which one?

According to Danziger et al., the mechanisms responsible for judges' decsion-makng patterns are ego depletion and the status quo heuristic

In the study by Danziger et al., researchers speculated that judges’ decisions partly depended on judges’ tendency to choose in favor of the maintenance of the status quo

The status quo heuristic is a decision-making strategy consciously endorsed by judges

2 / 3

One of the following statements is false. Which one?

According to Danziger et al., deciding to grant parole requires greater cognitive effort than deciding to reject it

In the study by Danziger et al, researchers found that judges’ decisions to reject parole took longer than decisions to grant it

Ego depletion' means depletion of cognitive resources due to sustained excercise of self-control

3 / 3

One of the following statements is false. Which one?

In the study by Danziger et al, researchers found that the percentage of favorable decisions decreased according to the time elapsed since the latest food break

In the study by Danziger et al, researchers found that the time elapsed since the latest food break was the most reliable predictor of the decision

In the study by Danziger et al, researchers found that the judges' decisions were strongly affected by the ethnic group of the applicants

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Cognitive Biases in Adjudication (2)

1 / 3

One of the following statements is false. Which one?

The experiments reported in Englich et al suggest that prosecutors’ demands anchor judges’ decisions; this effect, however, is usually counterbalanced by defense attorneys’ demands

The experiments reported in Englich et al suggest that prosecutors’ demands anchor judges’ decisions, even when judges are well aware that these demands come from someone devoid of any legal expertise, or are even determined by pure chance

The experiments reported in Englich et al suggest that even irrelevant and patently unreasonable values may significantly anchor judges’ decisions

2 / 3

One of the following statements is false. Which one?

Anchoring is the procedure consisting in making estimates by starting from an initial value that is adjusted to yield, and influences, the final answer

Anchoring is triggered even by numerical values that are clearly irrelevant to the problem at hand

Anchoring is triggered only by numerical values not too distant from a reasonable solution of the problem at hand

3 / 3

One of the following statements is false. Which one?

Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that, although they deviate with respect to acknowledged standards of rational thought and decision-making, usually lead to good enough conclusions or decisions

Heuristics lead to systematic errors

Heuristics are systematic errors consequent on the use of cognitive shortcuts

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Cognitive Biases and Adjudication

Marco Brigaglia, Cognitive Biases in Adjudication

Lecture Part 1

Part 2

Quiz 1

Quiz 2