Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Texas Law Review "See Also"
Publication Date
2015
ISSN
0040-4411
Page Number
317
Keywords
judges, emotion, judicial behavior, decision making, law and psychology
Disciplines
Judges | Law
Abstract
In "Heart Versus Head," Rachlinski, Guthrie, and Wistrich present experimental findings suggesting that judges sometimes rule on the basis of emotion rather than reason. Though there is much of value in their findings, they have presented a false choice. The experiments do offer strong evidence that judges' decisions can be influenced by the "affect heuristic," insofar as they show that prompting generalized feelings of good/bad and like/dislike can sway legal rulings that ought to be answered entirely on traditionally legalistic grounds. However, the experiments do not speak more broadly to the influence of judicial emotion, which is a far more complex phenomenon than the affect heuristic.
Recommended Citation
Terry A. Maroney,
Why Choose? A Response to Rachlinski, Wistrich & Guthrie, 93 Texas Law Review "See Also". 317
(2015)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/761