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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Sometimes, in the task of communicating technical or scientific information to the public, something can be lost in the translation. Of course, that is often a challenge for expert witnesses in courtroom settings, but currently, we are seeing it play out on the national stage. As the coronavirus vaccine is […]

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It was just about a year ago that we all started hearing about a novel virus originating in China. A few months later, as American courts ground to a halt, or moved forward haltingly, it started to create the backlog of cases that continues to grow. Now, every court system in

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: This past week saw some events most of us thought we would never see: A violent mob rampaging through the U.S. Capitol Building, shutting down a joint session of Congress in order to stop the Constitutional procedure of counting the presidential vote. In the coming weeks, of course, we are

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The damages category of “pain and suffering” is notoriously uncertain, at least in jurors’ estimation. The act of quantifying and monetizing a plaintiff’s subjective experience associated with a loss or an injury can be a challenge. Ultimately, of course, pain is an electrochemical response within the brain and as technology

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In the current wave of this pandemic year, as many trials and in-person jury research projects are on hold, the social science research has continued. I’m thankful for that, and for this post, I want to appreciate a new study on gratitude itself. The study (Algoe et al., 2020) shows that people

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: After a tense few days of states counting votes while the public kept refreshing the CNN map, the 2020 Presidential Election has finally been called. And at least in the initial aftermath, we have seen starkly different responses from President-Elect Biden and President Trump. As the victory emerged from Pennsylvania

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Trial lawyers work in words: language that is precise, economical, and influential. Those words are the water that litigators swim in, and for that reason, the absence of words can be a little uncomfortable. That can be an obstacle to using one effective technique in a variety of settings. That

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The Reptile approach of trying plaintiffs’ cases by framing them in terms of personal safety is no longer a new idea. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are also less likely to treat that approach as a cure-all in every trial. But the Reptile’s themes and techniques are still there, having snaked their way

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It is obvious that we live in a time of extraordinary polarization, and we are in the midst of an election that is bringing that schism into even starker contrast. Red and blue Americans differ in our demographics, our education, our policy commitments, and where we live. But perhaps we

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Well, Wednesday’s Vice Presidential debate was more civil than the top-of-the-card match last week. It offered a more substantive comparison of positions, with the candidates on both sides looking mature, reasonable, and even presidential. That may be a good thing considering that the the President and his challenger are 74