How Do Judges Think About Risk?

Authors

W. Kip Viscusi

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

American Law and Economics Review

Publication Date

1999

ISSN

1465-7252

Page Number

26

Keywords

judges, risk perception, life valuation

Disciplines

Judges | Law | Probability | Statistical Theory

Abstract

A sample of almost 100 judges exhibited well-known patterns of biases in risk beliefs and reasonable implicit values of life. These biases and personal preferences largely do not affect attitudes toward judicial risk decisions, though there are some exceptions, such as ambiguity aversion, misinterpretation of negligence rules, and retrospective risk assessments in accident cases, which is a form of hindsight bias. Although judges avoided many pitfalls exhibited by jurors and the population at large, they nevertheless exhibited systematic errors, particularly for small probability-large loss events. These findings highlighted the importance of judicial review and the input of expert risk analysts to assist judicial decisions in complex risk cases.

Recommended Citation

W. Kip Viscusi, How Do Judges Think About Risk?, 1 American Law and Economics Review. 26 (1999)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/79