Cognitive
Using Neuroscience to Understand Stress and Improve Mediation
March 5, 2019
People involved in conflict generally, and in mediation specifically, encounter many events that initiate the physiologic stress response. What is this response and what triggers it? How does the stress response impact judgment, decision-making, and memory? What can mediators do to minimize the deleterious effects of the stress response? Learning the answers to these questions can help to make a more effective mediator. Mediation creates many stress triggers. Participants may feel unprepared...
March 5, 2019
People involved in conflict generally, and in mediation specifically, encounter many events that initiate the physiologic stress response. What is this response and what triggers it? How does the stress response impact judgment, decision-making, and memory? What can mediators do to minimize the deleterious effects of the stress response? Learning the answers to these questions can help to make a more effective mediator. Mediation creates many stress triggers. Participants may feel unprepared...
Runners Get A Wellbeing Boost From Participating In Organised Races
February 24, 2019
A recent study suggests it’s worth a go – Marzena Cypryańska and John Nezlek report in The Journal of Positive Psychology that recreational runners were happier and more satisfied with life during weeks in which they had taken part in an organised race. The pair believe this is because the main aim for most people who take part in (non-elite) organised races is simply to complete the course (which virtually all entrants do). Therefore “no one loses, no matter how long they take to finish”...
February 24, 2019
A recent study suggests it’s worth a go – Marzena Cypryańska and John Nezlek report in The Journal of Positive Psychology that recreational runners were happier and more satisfied with life during weeks in which they had taken part in an organised race. The pair believe this is because the main aim for most people who take part in (non-elite) organised races is simply to complete the course (which virtually all entrants do). Therefore “no one loses, no matter how long they take to finish”...
People With Advantageous Personality Traits Have More Nerve-Fibre Insulation (Myelination) In Key Brain Areas
February 23, 2019
Researchers are getting closer to understanding the neurological basis of personality. For a new paper in the Journal of Personality, Nicola Toschi and Luca Passamonti took advantage of a recent technological breakthrough that makes it possible to use scans to estimate levels of myelination in different brain areas (until fairly recently this could only be done at postmortem). Myelin is a fatty substance that insulates nerve fibres and speeds up information processing in the brain...
February 23, 2019
Researchers are getting closer to understanding the neurological basis of personality. For a new paper in the Journal of Personality, Nicola Toschi and Luca Passamonti took advantage of a recent technological breakthrough that makes it possible to use scans to estimate levels of myelination in different brain areas (until fairly recently this could only be done at postmortem). Myelin is a fatty substance that insulates nerve fibres and speeds up information processing in the brain...
Thinking or Acting Like A Lawyer? What We Don’t Know About Legal Education and are Afraid to Ask
February 16, 2019
This essay (the keynote address at International Conference on Research on Legal Education at the University of New South Wales, December 3-5 2017) reviews the “Big Bangs” in American legal education from “thinking like a lawyer” (classical Socratic education), developing legal theory, critical thinking, jurisprudence, critical legal studies, critical race and feminist theory, “acting like a lawyer” (clinical and experiential educaton), “being a lawyer,” (legal ethics and professional...
February 16, 2019
This essay (the keynote address at International Conference on Research on Legal Education at the University of New South Wales, December 3-5 2017) reviews the “Big Bangs” in American legal education from “thinking like a lawyer” (classical Socratic education), developing legal theory, critical thinking, jurisprudence, critical legal studies, critical race and feminist theory, “acting like a lawyer” (clinical and experiential educaton), “being a lawyer,” (legal ethics and professional...
Study Identifies The Most Effective Mental Strategies That People Use To Get Through Aversive Challenges
February 15, 2019
What strategies do you use to push through a tough challenge, be it a run on a treadmill or a stressful phone call with your boss? Perhaps you remind yourself of what you have to gain from completing the task, or you use distraction, or you think about the bad things that will happen if you give in? For a paper in the European Journal of Personality, a team led by Marie Hennecke at the University of Zurich has conducted what they say is the first ever investigation of these strategies, and others,...
February 15, 2019
What strategies do you use to push through a tough challenge, be it a run on a treadmill or a stressful phone call with your boss? Perhaps you remind yourself of what you have to gain from completing the task, or you use distraction, or you think about the bad things that will happen if you give in? For a paper in the European Journal of Personality, a team led by Marie Hennecke at the University of Zurich has conducted what they say is the first ever investigation of these strategies, and others,...
Cognitive Errors and Thinking Aids: Rationalising Choice of Law and Arbitration Clauses
February 14, 2019
We often mislead ourselves into believing that, by arriving at a certain contract decision, we have carefully considered all available options, weighed up the pros and cons of each attribute dispassionately, and selected the most favourable outcome, i.e. the one which maximises our welfare in the transaction. Regretfully, however, we are seldom cognisant of the rational components that form part of our contract decisions. In fact, we are rather often oblivious to the myriad of factors that a bad choice...
February 14, 2019
We often mislead ourselves into believing that, by arriving at a certain contract decision, we have carefully considered all available options, weighed up the pros and cons of each attribute dispassionately, and selected the most favourable outcome, i.e. the one which maximises our welfare in the transaction. Regretfully, however, we are seldom cognisant of the rational components that form part of our contract decisions. In fact, we are rather often oblivious to the myriad of factors that a bad choice...
Twitter Study Confirms The Power Of “Affect Labelling” – Emotions Are Calmed By Putting Them Into Words
February 7, 2019
You might imagine – as prior research suggests many people do – that putting your feelings into words will only intensify them. In fact, many laboratory studies have found the opposite to be true. Stating out loud, or writing down, what you are feeling – a process that psychologists call “affect labelling” – seems to down-regulate emotions, diminishing their intensity. Now an intriguing study has explored this phenomenon outside of the lab, analysing over a billion tweets to find...
February 7, 2019
You might imagine – as prior research suggests many people do – that putting your feelings into words will only intensify them. In fact, many laboratory studies have found the opposite to be true. Stating out loud, or writing down, what you are feeling – a process that psychologists call “affect labelling” – seems to down-regulate emotions, diminishing their intensity. Now an intriguing study has explored this phenomenon outside of the lab, analysing over a billion tweets to find...
Mediation 3.0: Merging The Old and The New
February 5, 2019
This is a published transcription of the 2017 Singapore Mediation Lecture delivered in Singapore (at Singapore Management University) in 2017. The lecture provides a brief overview of a world history of mediation (1.0-Ancient Mediation through the early arguments for ADR; Mediation 2.0-distortions of mediation-lite, no joint meeting mediation and mandatory mediation, spread of mediation throughout legal cultures, use of hybrids and scaling up mediation to larger disputes and conflicts; to Mediation...
February 5, 2019
This is a published transcription of the 2017 Singapore Mediation Lecture delivered in Singapore (at Singapore Management University) in 2017. The lecture provides a brief overview of a world history of mediation (1.0-Ancient Mediation through the early arguments for ADR; Mediation 2.0-distortions of mediation-lite, no joint meeting mediation and mandatory mediation, spread of mediation throughout legal cultures, use of hybrids and scaling up mediation to larger disputes and conflicts; to Mediation...
The Loser’s Curse: Decision Making and Market Efficiency in the National Football League Draft
February 3, 2019
A question of increasing interest to researchers in a variety of fields is whether the biases found in judgment and decision-making research remain present in contexts in which experienced participants face strong economic incentives. To investigate this question, we analyze the decision making of National Football League teams during their annual player draft. This is a domain in which monetary stakes are exceedingly high and the opportunities for learning are rich. It is also a domain in which...
February 3, 2019
A question of increasing interest to researchers in a variety of fields is whether the biases found in judgment and decision-making research remain present in contexts in which experienced participants face strong economic incentives. To investigate this question, we analyze the decision making of National Football League teams during their annual player draft. This is a domain in which monetary stakes are exceedingly high and the opportunities for learning are rich. It is also a domain in which...
Behavioral Economics May Make Champs of the Cleveland Browns
February 3, 2019
All eyes are on the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots, but the Cleveland Browns had an impressive season too. Although they didn’t make the playoffs, they did go 7-8-1 in 2018 after finishing 0-16 a year earlier. It’s one of the biggest single-season improvements in National Football League history, and the Browns owe it in large part to behavioral economics. The turnaround was orchestrated by a small team of analytics wonks in the front office, led by chief strategy officer Paul...
February 3, 2019
All eyes are on the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots, but the Cleveland Browns had an impressive season too. Although they didn’t make the playoffs, they did go 7-8-1 in 2018 after finishing 0-16 a year earlier. It’s one of the biggest single-season improvements in National Football League history, and the Browns owe it in large part to behavioral economics. The turnaround was orchestrated by a small team of analytics wonks in the front office, led by chief strategy officer Paul...
