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: 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: Imagine this: Your success as an attorney or a witness requires a painstaking dig into the fine points of securities trading. Or offshore corporation taxation rules. Or design criteria for inventory-tracking software. Or the minutia of a construction timeline. Or a patent claim for an electronic switch. Or…you get the
Compensate for Dry Style or Dry Material: Seven Ways Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If I followed the modern ‘clickbait’ style in coming up with a title for this post, maybe I’d go with “You Won’t Believe the Psychological Technique that Creates Greater Influence,” or perhaps, “Twenty Ways to Persuade with Curiosity: #19 Will Shock You!!” As much as we might hate the over-the-top social media versions (not
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: File this in the category of, “I didn’t realize just how uninformed some people are,” a new survey makes the claim that seven percent of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. The data comes courtesy of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy drawn from an online survey conducted in April
Brown Cows and Chocolate Milk: Account for Rational Ignorance Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We live in an age of wonders, and those wonders are making it into the courtroom. Attorneys can now display, slice, and dice their documents on the fly using sophisticated presentation software, or even their own iPad. They can show demonstrative exhibits created with the kind of cutting edge design
Go Ahead and Use a Flip Chart Read More »
By Dr. Broda Bahm: When I give the orientation at the beginning of a mock trial, I’ll typically say something like, “Because this is a shortened version of a trial, you aren’t going to be able to hear everything. We will boil it down, summarize, and avoid some of the details, and we do that
Excluded Evidence: If Jurors Can’t Know “What,” Help Them Understand “Why Not” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Have you heard of a company called Cambridge Analytica? Well, chances are, they’ve not only heard about you, they know quite a bit about you. Until recent months, the company had been a little-known data analysis outfit based in London. But based on a number of reports, including a very informative recent
Understand How the Presidential Campaign Rewrote the Book on Persuasion Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Damned if it isn’t true: People who swear are more honest, and perceived as more persuasive. According to a recent Psyblog post, that is indeed what the research shows. The most recent study on the subject (Feldman et al., 2017) looked at both self-reports as well as an analysis of Facebook communications
Drop Your Filters…in a Few Safe Ways Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As the juror sits in the jury box hearing the case, she is not just rationally deciding who has the better position. She is also applying and maintaining her own self-concept. The implicit question she is asking herself is, “Am I the kind of person who would approve or condemn this?”
Expect Jurors to See Themselves as More Moral than Average Read More »