by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
This is a fascinating study on how those that kill significant others or family members are different from those who kill strangers. The first author explains how these murderers are different, saying “These murders are usually in the heat of passion and generally involve drugs or alcohol and often are driven by jealousy or revenge […]
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Texas + Wealth + Family Lawsuits = Dysfunction?
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Hanlon, R., Brook, M., Demery, J., & Cunningham, M. (2015) Domestic Homicide: Neuropsychological Profiles of Murderers Who Kill Family Members and Intimate Partners. Journal of Forensic Sciences. DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.12908
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
A study a while back showed ‘above chance’ guessing of sexual orientation based on photographs of faces alone. The results were explained as proof of gaydar. Now, a new study says gaydar is not real and is a way to stereotype others that is seen as more “socially and personally acceptable”. They point to a […]
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The Danger of Stereotyping: Does Gay + Black = Likable?
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Cox, W., Devine, P., Bischmann, A., & Hyde, J. (2015) Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes, Faces, and The Gaydar Myth. The Journal of Sex Research, 1-15. DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2015.1015714
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Here’s a study about road safety that doesn’t know it’s a nice indication of why litigators need good graphics. We have blogged before about the value of graphics so it’s good to see more research that is so sensible to highlight the value of the visual in the courtroom. Today’s researchers wanted to see which […]
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A picture is worth a thousand words…
Surely we are not talking about the same person!
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Hess G, & Peterson MN. (2015) "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" Signage Communicates U.S. Roadway Rules and Increases Perception of Safety. PloS one, 10(8). PMID: 26317355
There’s an enduring puzzle about religion and government, and it’s about what effect religions have on government welfare policies. That’s down to an intriguing observation: that more religious countries tend to have a weaker welfare state. Quite why this is so is a matter of dispute. After all, given religion’s association with altruism, you might [Read More...]... Read more »
Be'ery G, & Ben-Nun Bloom P. (2015) God and the Welfare State - Substitutes or Complements? An Experimental Test of the Effect of Belief in God's Control. PloS one, 10(6). PMID: 26061050
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
We recently posted new research on the secret to combatting distrust of science. Now we have more research on how to talk about climate change without setting off automatic and defensive reactions from listeners. Not many of our readers are going to be litigating climate change issues, but the challenge of discussing complex scientific issues […]
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How can I convince them this wasn’t racist? Just keep talking…
Eyewitness identification and change blindness
Are conse........ Read more »
Severson, A., & Coleman, E. (2015) Moral Frames and Climate Change Policy Attitudes*. Social Science Quarterly. DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12159
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Here’s another collection of interesting tidbits that don’t rate an entire blog post on their own but that we think worthy of mention. Think of them as our contribution to your conversational contributions over dinner, drinks, or to fill that awkward silence that pops up unexpectedly. Be thin, White and attractive for crowdfunding success! It’s […]
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A law firm’s financial success & the managing partners’ face
Intergenerational Law Offices and Intergenerationa........ Read more »
Kret ME, Fischer AH, & De Dreu CK. (2015) Pupil Mimicry Correlates With Trust in In-Group Partners With Dilating Pupils. Psychological science. PMID: 26231910
by TakFurTheKaffe in Tak Fur The Kaffe
Young people tend to think alike, but the older you get, the more easily distracted you become, shows new research.... Read more »
Campbell, K., Shafto, M., Wright, P., Tsvetanov, K., Geerligs, L., Cusack, R., & Tyler, L. (2015) Idiosyncratic responding during movie-watching predicted by age differences in attentional control. Neurobiology of Aging, 36(11), 3045-3055. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.07.028
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Here’s a new way to measure our awareness of our own biases in four easy questions. Yes. Four. We are constantly writing about bias here and when we see ways to measure bias it is usually convoluted or prohibitively expensive, or contains language not suitable for courtroom use. This scale, however, is different—it is short […]
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... Read more »
Perry, S., Murphy, M., & Dovidio, J. (2015) Modern prejudice: Subtle, but unconscious? The role of Bias Awareness in Whites' perceptions of personal and others' biases. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 64-78. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2015.06.007
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
And….do you think I can now guess your opinion on abortion? And brain death? It’s like a dream-state voir dire question. Today’s researchers used 8 different studies to explore the relationship between participants identifying with either the head or the heart and the participants’ positions on various hot-button issues. It’s a question that has been […]
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Simple Jury Persuasion: When your Muslim female client wears a head-covering
Simple Jury Persuasion: Tilt your........ Read more »
Adam, H, Obodaru, O, & Galinsky, AD. (2015) Who you are is where you are: Antecedents and con sequencing of locating the self in the brain or the heart. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 74-83. info:/
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
The art of persuasion is often complex and diverse, but today’s study also shows how it can be simple and elegant. Here’s a surprisingly easy way to diminish the automatic, knee-jerk and distrusting reaction to scientific findings. Tell your listeners about scientific consensus. Today’s researchers call consensus a “gateway belief” that results in the ability […]
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Simple Jury Persuasion: Educating jurors about science may have no effect
Simple Jury Persuasion: The........ Read more »
van der Linden SL, Leiserowitz AA, Feinberg GD, & Maibach EW. (2015) The scientific consensus on climate change as a gateway belief: experimental evidence. PloS one, 10(2). PMID: 25714347
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
It makes sense. If someone is rude to you, you might become grumpy and be rude in response, or rude to those who cross your path in the wake of the mistreatment. You may think of this as a small issue but new research shows us that rude behaviors are actually harmful—and, in fact, as […]
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Fat bias in the workplace
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Foulk, T., Woolum, A., & Erez, A. (2015) Catching Rudeness Is Like Catching a Cold: The Contagion Effects of Low-Intensity Negative Behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/apl0000037
by Jalees Rehman in The Next Regeneration
What do the third parties do with your data? We do not really know because the laws and regulations are rather fuzzy here. We do know that Google, Facebook and Twitter primarily make money by advertising so they could potentially use your info and customize the ads you see. Just because you visited a page on breast cancer does not mean that the "Invisible Web" knows your name and address but they do know that you have some interest in breast cancer. It would make financial sense to sen........ Read more »
Libert, T. (2015) Privacy implications of health information seeking on the web. Communications of the ACM, 58(3), 68-77. DOI: 10.1145/2658983
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
At least those are the findings of the Religious Understandings of Science (RUS) study which is based on a “nationally representative survey of more than 10,000 Americans”. Sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), this study (completed in early 2014) hit the media about a year later. Sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund […]
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Ecklund, EH, & Scheitle, C. (2014) Religious Communities, Science, Scientists, and Perceptions:A Comprehensive Survey. Annual Meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. . info:/
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Here again is a collection of tidbits we don’t deem worthy of a complete blog post but which might be of interest or even amusing to you. Social media is how we get our news these days While you may think Twitter is receding in importance, the numbers beg to differ. A new Pew Research […]
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Lee, D., Kim, E., & Schwarz, N. (2015) Something smells fishy: Olfactory suspicion cues improve performance on the Moses illusion and Wason rule discovery task. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47-50. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2015.03.006
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Donald Trump has been getting a lot of press since he announced his candidacy for President. He is labeled a racist by critics, yet leads the polls of Republican presidential candidates. CNN has an explanation of why they think Trump continues to poll so well (he is attacking fellow Republicans and connecting with angry voters […]
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Benson, R., & Wood, T. (2015) Who Says What or Nothing at All? Speakers, Frames, and Frameless Quotes in Unauthorized Immigration News in the United States, Norway, and France. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(7), 802-821. DOI: 10.1177/0002764215573257
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Oh the “humblebrag”. It’s really not that long since career counselors were suggesting interview questions asking about weaknesses could be turned to the candidate’s advantage by responding about an alleged weakness that was really a strength. (“Weakness? I think I tend to be perfectionistic. I just can’t send in a report without double-checking it for […]
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I bought a house that is simply too big and now I have to hire a cleaning service…
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Sezer, O., Gino, F., & Norton, M. (2015) Humblebragging: A Distinct And Ineffective Self-Presentation Strategy. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2597626
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
We’ve worked on several qui tam cases where mock jurors have been suspicious of the motivations for the whistleblower given the huge amounts of money they stand to make. So what if the whistleblower is the [current or former] lawyer? There’s a really interesting article in SSRN on the ethical issues surrounding lawyers blowing whistles. […]
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Predicting case outcomes? Lawyers are pretty dismal at it!
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Clark, K., & Moore, N. (2015) Buying Voice: Financial Rewards for Whistleblowing Lawyers. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2562610
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Here’s a really easy solution to our tendency to sometimes do bad things: be aware of the temptation and think of the longterm consequences of the behavior. It’s a simple answer to a vexing problem that has been with us for millennia. Researchers wanted to see how identifying an ethical conflict and considering the long-term […]
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Which is the more moral negotiator? The male or the female?
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You can stop smok........ Read more »
Sheldon OJ, & Fishbach A. (2015) Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically. Personality , 41(7), 962-75. PMID: 26001580
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
So here’s a voir dire fantasy: When race is salient to your case, strike for cause all potential jurors who say they watch their local television news. For what cause? Because they’re more likely to be racist—at least according to today’s research. Local news coverage tends to focus on crime according to the researchers and […]
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How can I convince them this wasn’t racist? Just keep talking…
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Arendt, F, & Northup, T. (2015) Effects of long-term exposure to news stereotypes on implicit and explicit attitudes. International Journal of Communication,, 732-751. info:/
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
Want to see a lively argument? Ask a couple of legal professionals if jurors can detect deception in witnesses or parties— and then slowly back away. It’s a hotly debated topic with some saying “jurors usually get it right” and others pointing to reams of research saying no one is a very good lie detector. […]
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Lie with impunity and without detection
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Klein N, & Epley N. (2015) Group discussion improves lie detection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [PNAS], 112(24), 7460-5. PMID: 26015581
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