The Psychology of Judicial Decision Making (American Psychology-Law Society Series)

While scholars in the past several decades have made great progress in explaining what judges do, there remains a certain lack of depth to our understanding. This volume grew from a belief that close examination of the psychological processes underlying judicial decision making can greatly enrich this understanding. The collected essays map ways of incorporating key concepts and findings from psychology into the study of judging. The first section of the book takes as its starting point the fact that judges make many of the same judgments and decisions that ordinary people make and considers how our knowledge about judgment and decision-making in general applies to the case of legal judges. In the second section, chapters focus on the specific tasks that judges perform within a unique social setting and examine the expertise and particular modes of reasoning that judges develop to deal with their tasks in this unique setting. Finally, the third section raises questions about whether and how we can evaluate judicial performance, with implications for the possibility of improving judging through the selection and training of judges and structuring of judicial institutions. Together the essays will foster a better understand how judges make decisions, and open new avenues of inquiry into influences on judicial behavior. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Contents 8 Series Foreword 6 Contributors 10 Introduction 12 Part I. Judges and Human Behavior 18 1 Motivation and Judicial Behavior: Expanding the Scope of Inquiry 20 2 Multiple Constraint Satisfaction in Judging 44 3 Top-Down and Bottom-Up Models of Judicial Reasoning 58 4 Persuasion in the Decision Making of U.S. Supreme Court Justices 74 5 Judges as Members of Small Groups 90 6 The Supreme Court, Social Psychology, and Group Formation 102 Part II. Judging as Specialized Activity 118 7 Is There a Psychology of Judging? 120 8 Features of Judicial Reasoning 138 9 In Praise of Pedantic Eclecticism: Pitfalls and Opportunities in the Psychology of Judging 148 10 Judges, Expertise, and Analogy 166 11 Thresholds for Action in Judicial Decisions 182 12 Every Jury Trial Is a Bench Trial: Judicial Engineering of Jury Disputes 200 13 Searching for Constraint in Legal Decision Making 220 Part III. Evaluating and Improving Judging 236 14 Evaluating Judges 238 15 Defining Good Judging 266 16 Expertise of Court Judges 286 17 Cognitive Style and Judging 296 18 Building a Better Judiciary 302 References 314 Index 352 A 352 B 352 C 352 D 352 E 353 F 353 G 353 H 353 I 353 J 353 K 353 L 353 M 353 N 353 O 353 P 354 R 354 S 354 T 354 W 354 Table of Cases 354 A 354 B 354 C 354 F 354 G 354 H 354 K 354 M 354 P 354 R 354 U 355 W 355 Motivation And Judicial Behavior : Expanding The Scope Of Inquiry / Lawrence Baum -- Multiple Constraint Satisfaction In Judging / Jennifer K. Robbennolt, Robert J. Maccoun, And John M. Darley -- Top-down And Bottom-up Models Of Judicial Reasoning / Brandon L. Bartels -- Persuasion In The Decision Making Of U.s. Supreme Court Justices / Lawrence S. Wrightsman -- Judges As Members Of Small Groups / Wendy L. Martinek -- The Supreme Court, Social Psychology, And Group Formation / Neal Devins And Will Federspiel -- Is There A Psychology Of Judging? / Frederick Schauer -- Features Of Judicial Reasoning / Emily Sherwin -- In Praise Of Pedantic Eclecticism : Pitfalls And Opportunities In The Psychology Of Judging / Dan Simon -- Judges, Expertise, And Analogy / Barbara A. Spellman -- Thresholds For Action In Judicial Decisions / Len Dalgleish, James Shanteau, And April Park -- Every Jury Trial Is A Bench Trial : Judicial Engineering Of Jury Disputes / C.k. Rowland, Tina Traficanti, And Erin Vernon -- Searching For Constraint In Legal Decision Making / Eileen Braman -- Evaluating Judges / Gregory Mitchell -- Defining Good Judging / Andrew J. Wistrich -- Expertise Of Court Judges / James Shanteau And Len Dalgleish -- Cognitive Style And Judging / Gregory Mitchell And Philip E. Tetlock -- Building A Better Judiciary / Daniel A. Farber And Suzanna Sherry. Edited By David Klein, Gregory Mitchell. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 297-334) And Index. Motivation and judicial behavior : expanding the scope of inquiry / Lawrence Baum Multiple constraint satisfaction in judging / Jennifer K. Robbennolt, Robert J. MacCoun, and John M. Darley Top-down and bottom-up models of judicial reasoning / Brandon L. Bartels Persuasion in the decision making of U.S. Supreme Court justices / Lawrence S. Wrightsman Judges as members of small groups / Wendy L. Martinek The Supreme Court, social psychology, and group formation / Neal Devins and Will Federspiel Is there a psychology of judging? / Frederick Schauer Features of judicial reasoning / Emily Sherwin In praise of pedantic eclecticism : pitfalls and opportunities in the psychology of judging / Dan Simon Judges, expertise, and analogy / Barbara A. Spellman Thresholds for action in judicial decisions / Len Dalgleish, James Shanteau, and April Park Every jury trial is a bench trial : judicial engineering of jury disputes / C. K. Rowland, Tina Traficanti, and Erin Vernon Searching for constraint in legal decision making / Eileen Braman Evaluating judges / Gregory Mitchell Defining good judging / Andrew J. Wistrich Expertise of court judges / James Shanteau and Len Dalgleish Cognitive style and judging / Gregory Mitchell and Philip E. Tetlock Building a better judiciary / Daniel Farber and Suzanna Sherry. ## Abstract This volume of essays examines the psychological processes that underlie judicial decision making. Chapters in the first section of the book take as their starting point the fact that judges make many of the same judgments and decisions that ordinary people make and consider how our knowledge about judgment and decision-making in general applies to the case of legal judges. Chapters in the second section focus on the specific tasks that judges perform within a unique social setting and examine the expertise and particular modes of reasoning that judges develop to deal with their tasks in this unique setting. Chapters in the third section raise questions about whether and how we can evaluate judicial performance, with implications for the possibility of improving judging through the selection and training of judges and structuring of judicial institutions. Together the essays apply a wide range of psychological insights to help us better understand how judges make decisions and to open new avenues of inquiry into the influences on judicial behavior. Over the years, psychologists have devoted uncountable hours to learning how human beings make judgments and decisions. As much progress as scholars have made in explaining what judges do over the past few decades, there remains a certain lack of depth to our understanding. Even where scholars can make consensual and successful predictions of a judge's behavior, they will often disagree sharply about exactly what happens in the judge's mind to generate the predicted result. This volume of essays examines the psychological processes that underlie judicial decision making. This volume of essays examines the psychological processes that underlie judicial decision making. The book takes as its starting point the fact that judges make many of the same judgments and decisions that ordinary people make and considers how our knowledge about judgment applies to the case of legal judges