Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences· 2011Q1
Extraneous factors in judicial decisions
- 1,425citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2011year
Short summary
Judicial rulings on parole dropped from 65% to nearly 0% within decision sessions, returning to 65% after food breaks.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Parole ruling favorability dropped from ~65% to near 0% within decision sessions.
- Favorable rulings returned to ~65% immediately after judges took food breaks.
- The study segmented daily decisions into three sessions based on two food breaks.
- Findings challenge legal formalism's view of purely rational judicial decision-making.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Are judicial rulings based solely on laws and facts? Legal formalism holds that judges apply legal reasons to the facts of a case in a rational, mechanical, and deliberative manner. In contrast, legal realists argue that the rational application of legal reasons does not sufficiently explain the decisions of judges and that psychological, political, and social factors influence judicial rulings. We test the common caricature of realism that justice is "what the judge ate for breakfast" in sequential parole decisions made by experienced judges. We record the judges' two daily food breaks, which result in segmenting the deliberations of the day into three distinct "decision sessions." We find that the percentage of favorable rulings drops gradually from ≈ 65% to nearly zero within each decision session and returns abruptly to ≈ 65% after a break. Our findings suggest that judicial rulings can be swayed by extraneous variables that should have no bearing on legal decisions.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011 · DOI ↗
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General Decision SciencesDecision Sciences