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…
Imagine a world in which nobody is lying. A world in which no one has ever lied and will never lie. Which problems would emerge? How would life change? There would indeed be fundamental changes. Let us consider an example often used in criminal law classes: A husband whose wife falls in love with another…
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,…
During the last months you embarked on a journey through the depths of psychology influencing the legal sector. You realized the huge influence the anchoring effect has on negotiations. Judges tend to follow inferences drawn from previous cases and for a defendant, the time of the day has greater influence on the judgement he receives…
We recently mentioned in our Rational Roundup the Nobel Prize won by Prof. Richard Thaler. One of Richard Thaler’s key contributions to behavioral economics – and a reason for an increasing awareness of the latter as a field of research from the early 1980s onwards – is his work on what he labeled the endowment…
Imagine an auction for a dollar and the person with the highest bid gets the dollar. However, not only the person with the highest bid must pay the price, also the person with the second highest bid must make a payment. The auction starts at one cent and you will see the price increasing up…
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: 6 min read)
Although the Framing Effect is widely known in modern medicine, it likewise has a great impact on the legal profession. Research shows that the human mind is prone to errors in connection with different ways of framing choices. By reading this article you will discover how different ways of presenting options affect the decision-maker. You might be surprised that the Framing Effect is strongly connected to age – and that in your case it can only get worse.
(Reading time: 3 min read)
The 30 in 30 Briefing Series focuses on a new cognitive bias, fallacy or heuristic in every single publication. Through this Briefing we want to provide you with a rough overview of the cognitive phenomena most likely to occur in the legal profession. Today’s content: Frequency illusion, or also known as Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
It has to be understood in conjunction with the Confirmation Bias: A combination of both has ample potential to turn out harmful for legal research.