By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Over the weekend, the jury in the George Zimmerman case acquitted the neighborhood watchman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, evidently concluding that the prosecution failed to disprove the Defendant’s self-defense claim under Florida law. While there were numerous issues driving interest in this trial — racial profiling, concealed
Note the (Small) Difference a Female Jury Can Make Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You see the witness on the stand testifying. As she speaks, a storm of movements large and small cross her face and influence her posture and body. “She is nervous,” one juror thinks, “because she is just trying to say what the attorneys told her to say.” Meanwhile,
Adapt to Inconsistent Assessments of Witness Demeanor Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: With the travel plans of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden still up in the air at press time, the asylum seeker continues to draw attention to the extent of government surveillance of private communications in the U.S. and abroad. Some have questioned whether the diplomatic capital being expended on the dispute
Expect Secret Information to Be Overvalued Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm Earlier this Spring, a courthouse in Jackson Mississippi was actually invaded by snakes. That story might have made some in the plaintiff’s bar smile a bit, since in their view, Reptiles have been invading American courtrooms across the country for a few years now. Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the
Tame the Reptile in Your MedMal Defense Read More »
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 »