At the beginning, millions of years ago, bacteria were swallowing mitochondria. This small neighbor was not digested, however. Instead, the bacterium eventually evolved to live in a symbiotic relationship with its mitochondrial counterpart. The bacterium managed life, locomotion, food intake and more, while the mitochondria ensured that there was always plenty of energy available. This…
This is the second part of our Neurolaw reading series. You can find the first part HERE. Humans are first and foremost animals – even though we tend to deny that. Animals with morality, guided by the norms of their group and their feelings. We follow the guiding principles of our society which, for example,…
The Rational Roundup, as previously announced, provides our readers with regular updates on rational thinking and current discussions among cognitive scientists. This is the third part of the latest edition, addressing positive psychology and the behavioral enhancement of your professional productivity. In this short briefing, I will share further thoughts on how to improve your…
In the light of the German federal election approaching we decided to repost this thought provoking article. Learn how social bots influence your rational decision-making – and if you are one of our many German followers, this might be especially interesting for you. Building on our previous posts on artificial intelligence, this week’s publication will have…
A few months ago, I published a #30in30 regarding the hindsight bias. As I promised, during this essay, I will give you more information on the impacts on the legal profession as well as on debiasing this classic behavioral bias. This article will be a thorough introduction. Hence, there is no need to read the…
People generally underestimate how their body (or more precisely: their visceral drives, including hunger, thirst, drug cravings, physical pain and mere emotions) is influencing their behavior and decision-making. The legal profession is prone to this bias as much as anyone, as we will discover in the following. While workings of this bias within our private…
(Reading time: 3 min read)
Long before starting to study brain behavior and beginning to understand a little bit about how we make certain decisions, I – as a litigation lawyer – had to try to convince judges to rule according to my client’s claim. To reach my objectives, of course I did my part of the job: I understood the case, went through the documents, made all the legal research, and tried to write the facts in a clear and coherent way. As much as I believed in the case, however, I could never know for sure what to expect from another human’s mind. That is why my lucky amulet and my special prayer for a “judge’s good mood” were always there before a hearing or the submission of an important motion.
(Reading time: 3 min read)
With discussions centered around the recent US presidential election or UK’s Brexit and with several upcoming national elections in Europe (the Netherlands and France in spring, followed by Germany later this year), the topic of social media influence on traditional media, politicians, and voters through the instrument of social bots has been continuously on the rise.
(Reading time: 3 min read)
The 30 in 30 Briefing Series focuses on a new cognitive bias, fallacy or heuristic in every single publication. By this Briefing we want to provide you with a rough overview on the cognitive theories most likely to occur in your legal or business profession. Today’s content: The Availability Heuristic.