Are There Unconscious Influences on Judicial Decisions?

Unconscious influences on judicial decisions; Unconscious influences; Conscious will; Judicial decisions; Judicial intuition; Sentencing decisions; Judicial decision making; Legal decision makers; Psychology of law; Legal psychologyRecently Newell and Shanks [1, herefrom N&S] published a major article in which they critically addressed the issue of unconscious influences in human decision making, which is a theoretical and research problem of considerable importance from several standpoints. In philosophical terms, it touches on the notion ofthe existence of conscious will. In terms of psychology and neuroscience, it concerns the brain/mind question with regard to the neural versus the consciously intentional determination of action. Finally, the problem potentially has immense implications in socially significant decision making – which is the key concern of the present opinion article.

It is difficult to disagree with the negative slant of the review by N&S concerning the evidence that had been claimed to favor unconscious influences in decision making. Careful methodologists appreciate the authors’ thorough argumentation in debunking the frequently unreplicable, and sometimes trite, allegedly counter-intuitive experimental results from the sensationalist wing of “social cognition” in psychology. As just two of the many possible examples, there is, first, the careful examination by N&S of the accumulated negative evidence concerning the startling claim by Nisbett and Wilson that people (“actors”) are no more aware of the “true causes” of their behavior than are the mere observers of that behavior. Read more.......