Now, looking back on many publications this year a question still remains unanswered: How much bias does each of us carry around with himself? Striving to be an as-rational-as-possible-person, we need to confront our own biases at some point. Looking into the mirror, we might discover flaws in our own behavior, decision-making and dissonances between…
I used to forget different kinds of numbers. In history class, I never stood a chance during tests, because I constantly confused dates; sure, some people could easily remember a lot of historical events, but I could not. I do not even know the phone number of my favorite pizza spot by heart, although I…
(Reading time: 3 min read)
The “mood congruency effect” is not limited to your thoughts or memories, but it can also affect the types of decisions you make. According to Mayer, Gaschke, Braverman, and Evans (1992) who coined the term “mood congruency in judgments”, happy people are more likely than sad people to expect nice weather for a picnic, because nice weather is congruent with their pleasant mood.As lawyers, it is of extreme importance to be aware of the effect that mood has on decision making. This awareness ….
(Reading time: 2 min read)
The context Effect relates to how our brain processes the information we perceive in our environment. It describes how when we are confronted with environmental influences we often include them subliminally in our decision making.
Applied to the process of jurisdiction the Context Effect affects juries and judges because in each of them the finder of the…