Jurists: How to Outsmart Those Outsmarting You

(Reading time: 5 min read)

In the light of our rationality campaign at the ChampionsTrophy 2017, we decided to repost this thought provoking article. It explaines quite well how behavioural science serves the legal profession as well as your individual career. The ChampionsTrophy is an annual sports event in which the best legal and business students from all over Europe are paticipating. We are glad to engage with the participants regarding rational decision-making.

#30in30 – Choose Pictures over Words

(Reading time: 2 min read)

The picture superiority effect implies that human memory is more likely to remember pictures rather than words. The American psychologist, Allan Paivio, discovered that our memory uses both verbal associations and visual imagery to represent information. The advantage of pictures over verbal information has large implications in advertisement and education. But this effect also has an influence on the judicial system of jury-trial courts.

Update Efficiency – How to Increase Your Legal Group’s Productivity

(Reading time: 6 min read)

Communication within a work or practice group is always a walk on a knife’s edge. On the one hand you want to foster a strong team identification and create a work-friendly environment. On the other hand, clear and direct feedback is of utmost importance to deliver high-quality results over a longer period of time. Unfortunately, most people tend to prefer the social aspect of communication over direct feedback. Hence, there is ample scope for improvements in communication efficiency and a tentative need for a new kind of communication.

#30in30 – When you see it, it will chase you “Catch me if you can.”

(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.