By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: After a couple of weeks of “Will they or won’t they” palace intrigue involving Congress, the White House, the FBI and the DOJ, on Friday afternoon, the House Intelligence Committee finally released a four-page, declassified memorandum alleging that law enforcement officials had abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance process in obtaining […]
Treat Suspense as a Two-Edged Sword Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Maybe the mistake is in treating it as a “duty,” knowing that the things we do out of obligation are unlikely to be looked upon with anticipation and excitement. But “jury duty” is often framed as something to dread. Certainly, there are a great many stories of people who appreciated
Listen to Bitter Jurors (and Make It Better) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Those of us who work at the task of conducting and preparing for trials likely have a different view of the American jury than those who don’t. Where critics might see jurors as emotionally-driven, capricious, and hopelessly out of their element, we, based on our experience, are more likely to
Keep the Jury in Medical Malpractice Trials Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Jury selection presents a difficult challenge to trial lawyers, and calls for skills that are generally out of step with the rest of what they’re expected to master in order to get from filing to verdict. At the point of empaneling a jury, lawyers are expected to listen more than
Know the Principles: A Review of the “Jury Selection Handbook” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Politics matter, and not just when voting. The preference for your team and tribe, your perceptual filters, your values and priorities, as well as your sources for news and information are all going to depend on your political identity. But what does political identity mean these days? One thing that’s
Update Your Understanding of Political Identity Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Remember “Pong?” For those of us of a certain age, it was probably the first video game we ever played, knocking that pixelated ball back and forth using a flat digital paddle. The game is interestingly the subject of a new social science study focusing on perception (Witt, Tenhundfeld &
Expect Task to Determine Perception Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We all know what good teaching looks like. We remember it from school, or perhaps even from our own time as teachers. Good teaching breaks things down and makes them simple, at least at the start. Good teaching uses concrete and vivid examples and illustrations. Good teaching engages and adapts
Let the Judge Teach (and Not Just Recite) the Instructions Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We live in a hierarchical society, and the courtroom replicates (some would say, entrenches) some of those hierarchies. The law is written in an opaque manner that only the educated can understand, the bar physically separates the attorneys and the players from everyone else, and the judge is literally
Ask Your Potential Jurors: Do You Believe in the Legal Process? Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We don’t always have systematic reasons for believing what we believe. Often, it boils down to a feeling, a preference, or an implicit trust based on how we learned it. Motivation plays a big role. But there is one setting where that rationale is supposed to be systematic, logical, and
Ask Your Potential Jurors: Do You Believe in Science? Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: People have always believed things that aren’t true: the earth is flat, nonconforming women are witches, the moon landing was faked. Currently, we have our own set of false beliefs that have permeated some sectors of society. The difference, perhaps, is that there’s now the feeling that we’re in a
Ask Your Potential Juror: Having an Epistemological Crisis? Read More »