The impact of legal expertise on moral decision-making biases

Sandra Baez, Michel Patiño-Sáenz, Jorge Martínez-Cotrina, Diego Mauricio Aponte, Juan Carlos Caicedo, Hernando Santamaría-García, Daniel Pastor, María Luz González-Gadea, Martín Haissiner, Adolfo M. García and Agustín Ibáñez ()
Additional contact information
Sandra Baez: Universidad de los Andes
Michel Patiño-Sáenz: Universidad de los Andes
Jorge Martínez-Cotrina: Universidad Externado de Colombia
Diego Mauricio Aponte: Universidad Externado de Colombia
Juan Carlos Caicedo: Universidad Externado de Colombia
Hernando Santamaría-García: Hospital Universitario San Ignacio
Daniel Pastor: INECO Foundation
María Luz González-Gadea: Torcuato di Tella University
Martín Haissiner: INECO Foundation
Adolfo M. García: Universidad de San Andrés
Agustín Ibáñez: Universidad de San Andrés

Palgrave Communications, 2020, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Traditional and mainstream legal frameworks conceive law primarily as a purely rational practice, free from affect or intuition. However, substantial evidence indicates that human decision-making depends upon diverse biases. We explored the manifestation of these biases through comparisons among 45 criminal judges, 60 criminal attorneys, and 64 controls. We examined whether these groups’ decision-making patterns were influenced by (a) the information on the transgressor’s mental state, (b) the use of gruesome language in harm descriptions, and (c) ongoing physiological states. Judges and attorneys were similar to controls in that they overestimated the damage caused by intentional harm relative to accidental harm. However, judges and attorneys were less biased towards punishments and harm severity ratings to accidental harms. Similarly, they were less influenced in their decisions by either language manipulations or physiological arousal. Our findings suggest that specific expertise developed in legal settings can attenuate some pervasive biases in moral decision processes.

Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-020-00595-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:7:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00595-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-00595-8

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().