By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation methods following the September 11th attacks wasn’t depressing enough, the follow-up polling is sure to put an exclamation point on it: Americans, by a nearly two-to-one margin, support torture. Based on the belief that, despite the […]
Convince Jurors That the Ends Don’t Always Justify the Means Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Chants of “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and “I Can’t Breathe,” continue to be heard at protests around the country. Motivated by the Ferguson, Missouri police shooting of Michael Brown, as well as the choke-hold death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, these protests testify to a rising distrust
Don’t Confuse Certainty with Accuracy when It Comes to Witness Testimony Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You join a research study, and after being randomly assigned to one of two groups, you hear a message focused on how common stereotypes are (the other group hears instead how rare stereotypes are). Then you, along with the other group, are asked to rate women and men in general on a number
Beware the Boomerang of Normalized Bias Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You’re in a grocery store with your cart ready to check out. The entire time you’ve been in the store, you’ve understood that you can buy any kind of product the store sells. And at some point, you probably walked through the candy aisle on your way to pick up
Nudge the Legal Decision Maker Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In all the years I’ve been working with witnesses, I have yet to meet the perfect one. I’ve met some darned good ones, but everyone has a weakness. The question is whether they will let those weaknesses degrade their performance on the stand. Practically speaking, there are some weaknesses that
Help Your Witness See the Silver Lining Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You have probably noticed that the experience of watching a movie in a theater is different from the experience of watching that same movie in your home. Even with the larger home-theater screen and sound system, there is still something about seeing a great film on a truly big screen:
Make Your Case on the Big Screen Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Learning music carries some pretty profound cognitive benefits, so along with my seven-year-old daughter, I’m currently learning to play the guitar. Communicating the correct string or strings to pick carries some challenges, though. You could say the “D String,” but that doesn’t always yield quick recall from the seven-year-old (plus,
Make Colors Meaningful Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: A current article in Pacific Standard, the online publication of Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy, continues a debate that has become familiar to litigation consultants. The opinion piece by Seattle science writer Jane Hu makes the argument that the trial consulting field, and specifically its role in jury selection,
Expect Trial Consulting Myths to Die Hard Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Here’s a riddle for you: Going into the midterm elections, approval ratings for Congress hovered at just around 14 percent, yet the win rate for Congressional incumbents was 96.6 percent. How can we reconcile those numbers? Americans have an incredibly low opinion of the institution, yet overwhelmingly return the same
Account for Fenno’s Paradox: We Don’t Judge Groups Like We Judge Individuals Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It is one of those irritating word pairs in English, like “your” and “you’re” — similar spelling and sound, but different meaning and frequent confusion. “Adopt” means to “take something as your own,” while “adapt” means to “make an alteration in response to a situation.” The meanings are different, but
Witnesses: Don’t Adopt, Do Adapt Read More »