By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: At a mock trial the other day, one juror commented, “This is just like the ‘too big to fail’ thing… God, I hate that phrase. They think they’re above the consequences of their actions, and they don’t need to do anything about it!” Yes, banks and bailouts are back in […]
Address Jurors’ ‘Too Big to fail’ resentment Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When you’re analytically-minded, and have at least a little bit of training in logic and argument, then you might be tempted to think it is enough to name a logical fallacy or cognitive bias. After all, what rational audience would want to follow flawed reasoning? But just calling it out
‘De-Normalize’ Hindsight Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Defendants in civil cases are often plagued by the reality that the “should have,” “could have,” and “would have,” aspects of the reasonable care all exist in the realm of hindsight. The tendency to believe that negative consequences are more knowable and preventable when viewed through the lens of a
Debias on Hindsight Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The last few years have seen a societal turn toward identifying and addressing systems that institutionalize discrimination based on race, gender, and other demographic traits. That attention is obviously a good thing. But one issue that has been caught up in that trend has been a call to eliminate the
Save the Strikes: ASTC’s Research-Based Case Against Prohibiting the Peremptories Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: For many years, the reliable bet was that a deep distrust of corporations, and what we might call an anti-corporate bias in a litigation context, is a left-wing phenomenon. While conservatives might generally hew to the sentiment behind the adage that “What’s good for General Motors is good for America,” the
Treat Anti-Corporatism as a Bipartisan Bias Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Within the last few years, at least a few courts in the U.S. have started to wake up to some of the realities of the cognitive biases that can be an obstacle to a fair criminal or civil trial. For generations, courts have acted as though potential jurors could easily
Don’t Count on Being Able to Cure Implicit Bias Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If a manufacturer rushes an untested new product to market, did they do it to realize a gain (let’s say to increase profits by expanding into a new market) or to prevent or mitigate a loss (maybe to protect the company against an economic downturn)? The difference in this case
To Convince on Negligence, Frame It as “Gain” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There are a number of scenarios where race might matter to your case. Most obviously in the civil realm, these could be employment cases, police use of force cases, or claims involving unequal medical care or testing. In any number of other cases, race could come up as a factor
Need to Talk About Race in Trial? Watch for Language Polarization Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It has been a rough couple of years for science. Our newly-unmasked population seems to be more divided than ever about our ability to rely on science in applying systematic and neutral procedures in order to find reliable answers to the questions that matter. A sizable chunk of the population
Address Anti-Expert Bias: 5 Ways Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Many of us probably watched or heard about the drama this past week in the Women’s Olympic Figure Skating event. Kamila Valieva — just 15-years-old, but with a dominant combination of quad-jumps and world class performance style — tested positive for a banned substance. What followed for the Russian skater
Learn from Attitudes Toward Sports Abuse Read More »