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Neuroscience
Fifty Shades of Manipulation
April 10, 2016
A statement or action can be said to be manipulative if it does not sufficiently engage or appeal to people’s capacity for reflective and deliberative choice. One problem with manipulation, thus understood, is that it fails to respect people’s autonomy and is an affront to their dignity. Another problem is that if they are products of manipulation, people’s choices might fail to promote their own welfare, and might instead promote the welfare of the manipulator. To that extent, the central...
April 10, 2016
A statement or action can be said to be manipulative if it does not sufficiently engage or appeal to people’s capacity for reflective and deliberative choice. One problem with manipulation, thus understood, is that it fails to respect people’s autonomy and is an affront to their dignity. Another problem is that if they are products of manipulation, people’s choices might fail to promote their own welfare, and might instead promote the welfare of the manipulator. To that extent, the central...
People Prefer System 2 Nudges (Kind Of)
March 27, 2016
In the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and many other nations, those involved in law and policy have been exploring choice-preserving approaches, or “nudges,” informed by behavioral science and with the purpose of promoting important public policy goals, such as improved health and safety. But there is a large and insufficiently explored difference between System 1 nudges, which target or benefit from automatic processing, and System 2 nudges, which target or benefit from deliberative...
March 27, 2016
In the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and many other nations, those involved in law and policy have been exploring choice-preserving approaches, or “nudges,” informed by behavioral science and with the purpose of promoting important public policy goals, such as improved health and safety. But there is a large and insufficiently explored difference between System 1 nudges, which target or benefit from automatic processing, and System 2 nudges, which target or benefit from deliberative...
Four Villains of Decision Making
March 14, 2016
I’ve been reading the latest book by Dan Heath and Chip Heath, Decisive. (They have written two other great books: Made to Stick and Switch.) Many great insights are offered in this book that pertain to decision making and also applicable to how we resolve disputes. I’ll focus on the importance of choosing a good process. Excerpts from Decisive are in quotations. Decisive identifies “four villains of decision making” – narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term emotion and overconfidence,...
March 14, 2016
I’ve been reading the latest book by Dan Heath and Chip Heath, Decisive. (They have written two other great books: Made to Stick and Switch.) Many great insights are offered in this book that pertain to decision making and also applicable to how we resolve disputes. I’ll focus on the importance of choosing a good process. Excerpts from Decisive are in quotations. Decisive identifies “four villains of decision making” – narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term emotion and overconfidence,...
Human Memory Capacity is Ten Times More Than Previously Thought
March 10, 2016
The picture above shows a synapse between an axon (green) and dendrite (yellow). A human brain could hold as much information as the entire internet, a new study finds. Human memory capacity is in the petabyte range, researchers at the Salk Institute have now found. This is ten times larger than was previously thought. Professor Terry Sejnowski, the study’s first author, said: “This is a real bombshell in the field of neuroscience. We discovered the key to unlocking the design principle...
March 10, 2016
The picture above shows a synapse between an axon (green) and dendrite (yellow). A human brain could hold as much information as the entire internet, a new study finds. Human memory capacity is in the petabyte range, researchers at the Salk Institute have now found. This is ten times larger than was previously thought. Professor Terry Sejnowski, the study’s first author, said: “This is a real bombshell in the field of neuroscience. We discovered the key to unlocking the design principle...
Forecasting Domestic Violence: A Machine Learning Approach to Help Inform Arraignment Decisions
February 23, 2016
Arguably the most important decision at an arraignment is whether to release an offender until the date of his or her next scheduled court appearance. Under the Bail Reform Act of 1984, threats to public safety can be a key factor in that decision. Implicitly, a forecast of “future dangerousness” is required. In this article, we consider in particular whether usefully accurate forecasts of domestic violence can be obtained. We apply machine learning to data on over 28,000 arraignment cases from...
February 23, 2016
Arguably the most important decision at an arraignment is whether to release an offender until the date of his or her next scheduled court appearance. Under the Bail Reform Act of 1984, threats to public safety can be a key factor in that decision. Implicitly, a forecast of “future dangerousness” is required. In this article, we consider in particular whether usefully accurate forecasts of domestic violence can be obtained. We apply machine learning to data on over 28,000 arraignment cases from...
Redefining Attention (and Revamping the Legal Profession?) for the Digital Generation
December 18, 2015
While we cannot be certain what the future will hold for the legal profession, we can be sure that information and communication technologies (“ICTs”) (in some form or another) will be a part of it. Even if we could rid the world of ICTs for attention’s sake, most of us would opt not to—no more than we would abandon our cars or microwaves or ballpoint pens or any other invention once thought to be indicative of society’s general decay that is now a well-accepted part of everyday life. It is unrealistic...
December 18, 2015
While we cannot be certain what the future will hold for the legal profession, we can be sure that information and communication technologies (“ICTs”) (in some form or another) will be a part of it. Even if we could rid the world of ICTs for attention’s sake, most of us would opt not to—no more than we would abandon our cars or microwaves or ballpoint pens or any other invention once thought to be indicative of society’s general decay that is now a well-accepted part of everyday life. It is unrealistic...
Of Reptiles and Velcro: The Brain’s Negativity Bias and Persuasion
December 16, 2015
BAD IS STRONGER THAN GOOD Current thinking in cognitive psychology is that people (both adults and children) display what is called a “negativity bias.” One group of researchers concluded that “adults spend more time looking at negative than at positive stimuli, perceive negative stimuli to be more complex than positive ones, and form more complex cognitive representations of negative than of positive stimuli.” This section of the article first examines the evidence in social science...
December 16, 2015
BAD IS STRONGER THAN GOOD Current thinking in cognitive psychology is that people (both adults and children) display what is called a “negativity bias.” One group of researchers concluded that “adults spend more time looking at negative than at positive stimuli, perceive negative stimuli to be more complex than positive ones, and form more complex cognitive representations of negative than of positive stimuli.” This section of the article first examines the evidence in social science...
Kiser: The Emotionally Attentive Lawyer: Balancing the Rule of Law with the Realities of Human Behavior
December 15, 2015
This article explores the tension between the law and emotional intelligence and suggests that emotional intelligence is unjustifiably...
December 15, 2015
This article explores the tension between the law and emotional intelligence and suggests that emotional intelligence is unjustifiably...
Psychology and Lawyering: Coalescing the Field
December 14, 2015
There is some tendency, with the case method, for the study of law to be something like the study of chess or the analysis of a bridge hand. When analyzing the law in intricate detail, it may be hard to keep in mind the vital fact that the problems really relate to people . . . ." Erwin N. Griswold Although, historically, some may have thought of lawyers as walking talking brains, more recently we have seen increasing recognition that law is a people profession. After all, lawyers spend a substantial...
December 14, 2015
There is some tendency, with the case method, for the study of law to be something like the study of chess or the analysis of a bridge hand. When analyzing the law in intricate detail, it may be hard to keep in mind the vital fact that the problems really relate to people . . . ." Erwin N. Griswold Although, historically, some may have thought of lawyers as walking talking brains, more recently we have seen increasing recognition that law is a people profession. After all, lawyers spend a substantial...
Mediators Find More Tools Through Neuroscience
December 8, 2015
Mediators and other practitioners of alternative dispute resolution are using information gleaned from the research of world-class neuroscientists to calm emotions and help mediations resolve more easily. With the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging and the growing interest in brain mapping, neuroscientists and those trained by them are teaching thousands of mediators how to ease clients through a conflict-ridden process. While the layperson may believe we make decisions with our rational...
December 8, 2015
Mediators and other practitioners of alternative dispute resolution are using information gleaned from the research of world-class neuroscientists to calm emotions and help mediations resolve more easily. With the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging and the growing interest in brain mapping, neuroscientists and those trained by them are teaching thousands of mediators how to ease clients through a conflict-ridden process. While the layperson may believe we make decisions with our rational...
