By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It is conversation I frequently have when sending jurors off to deliberate as part of a mock trial. “Can we ask the attorneys questions about the case?” “No, just do your best with what you remember.” “But what if there are things we forget?” “Don’t worry, as a group you’re […]
Don’t Expect Better Memory from a Jury Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You know it is possible. As those jurors leave the courtroom with their mobile phones on a break or at the end of the day: They could be off on their own evidence-gathering foray, looking up the parties, the lawyers, the witnesses, or the law. But, they’ve been given strong
Expect a Majority of Your Jurors to Commit Online Misconduct Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Black Americans, especially but not exclusively those on the lower-economic rung, often have a different experience with police and the justice system. That difference makes them more likely to believe they’ve been discriminated against, or to believe more generally, that they get greater attention and less protection from the law.
Expect Support for Civil Litigation to Vary by Race and Social Status Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: America is not yet post-racial, and the Nazis marching this week in Charlottesville, Virginia should be a reminder of that. Continuing tensions on race are played out in courtrooms as well. The as-yet unresolved issues of racial bias in jury selection provide one example. Race-based removals impact the criminal sphere more than
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If you’ve ever suffered through an extended interpersonal argument, either as a protagonist or as an observer, you might be justifiably skeptical about its usefulness. The common experience is that no one is going to budge. I’ve been there as well, and that is why I was intrigued when reading
Focus on the Factors that Actually Change Minds Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: For a practical persuader, one of the most disturbing features of some biases is their self-sealing nature. When an audience suffers from confirmation bias, for example, you would hope that they could be taught out of it. That is, if they’re primed to think that all big corporations are evil,
Fight Confirmation Bias: Consider the Opposite Read More »
by Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Among the readers of this blog, there are a few people who write to me and let me know what they think about various posts. Sometimes it is to applaud a post, or to share an example where they’ve faced something similar. And sometimes, it is to take issue with
I Could Be Wrong: Cultivate Intellectual Humility Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Most of the civil cases we work on are big cases. It’s not a lone lawyer with a briefcase, it is a team: several senior attorneys, associates, paralegals, and in-house counsel. That’s the team that needs to work together through the long haul of the lead-up to trial, and that’s the
Know the Five Qualities of a Great Trial Team Read More »
by Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Having assisted on a large number of jury selections, I know there are a few attorneys who will say, “Give me the dumb ones — I’ll tell them what to think.” But by and large, the attorneys have what I call an “intelligence bias.” That is, they think that their side of
Consider What Drives Resistance to Your Message Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Jurors and judges sit in court and evaluate credibility. They continuously assess who is telling the truth and who isn’t. But what is the bias in those determinations? Lie detection itself is a notoriously uncertain ability, with confidence often high, but with actual ability tending to hover more around the
Expect Bias Statements to be Unreliable and Often Overcorrected Read More »