By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Looking at the pictures above, you can’t help but focus on what isn’t there: The triangle, the pole, the sphere, and the snake below the surface. That focus isn’t a voluntary choice, but an artifact of the way our pattern-loving brain processes. We are impatient with incompleteness or ambiguity and […]
Address the Need for Closure Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In the ongoing trial of George Zimmerman, the surprises were in evidence from the very first moments of opening statements. Prosecutor John Guy raised some eyebrows by, quoting the dispatch conversation, dropping the F-bomb as the third word in his opening statement (the first two words were “Good Morning”). But
Rely on Humor, But Not on Jokes Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We would like to think that our important moral judgments are made slowly, with care and deliberation — a kind of internal mental version of Plato talking with his students on the hills of Athens well into the day. But according to more modern research, it isn’t. Instead, it is
Adapt to Hair Trigger Moral Judgment Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In the ongoing jury selection in the trial of George Zimmerman, the Sanford Florida neighborhood watchman charged in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, one potential juror recently experienced a particularly rough exit from the trial. After reporting in voir dire that he had little knowledge of the case, he was
Know a Stealth Juror When You See One Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In a scene from that great movie of the ’80s, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, the economics teacher, played inimitably by Ben Stein, tries to engage a class of profoundly bored and unresponsive high school students: In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of
Ban the Word “Anyone” From Your Oral Voir Dire Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Does knowing about hindsight reduce your susceptibility to it? Not as much as we would hope. It is especially an occupational hazard for social scientists and others who study attitudes and bias; we tend to think that our ability to identify and describe the bias makes us immune to its effects.
Acknowledge the Bias Blind Spot Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The experience of language and meaning isn’t something bottled up in one drawer of the brain’s filing system. Instead, it is something that dances across your entire brain, using the full canvas of your cerebral cortex. And that sentence is a good example. It is visual and it is active.
Use Visual Language Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Legal persuaders know how to make an argument and how to sell a point. But what do you do when the other side gets there first? That is, what is the right response if, by the time you have the chance to offer your reasons, they’ve already mentioned the point,
Find Your Antidote to Inoculation Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The witness sits in the box. As counsel continues to fashion a question, what is running through that witness’s mind? “Where is the attorney going with this? I still haven’t had a chance yet to talk about all of the things I did well. Has juror four fallen asleep? And
Avoid Distractions on the Stand Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Think of the situations where self-diagnosis wouldn’t work very well: A police officer asking, “Do you think you were speeding?” or a doctor inquiring, “Do you believe your cancer is in remission?” Yet we still rely on self-diagnosis when trying to discover and eliminate bias in civil and criminal cases
Never Rely on Self-Diagnosis of Bias Read More »