Archives – Page 24 – The Red Well

How do jurors decide if a witness is telling the truth? | Online Jury Research Update

December 17th, 2022|

One of jurors' most common tasks in a trial is to assess witness truthfulness... While everyday deception detection is poor, jurors might be especially well-placed to assess the truth of witness accounts... Does the adversarial nature of a trial ... allow jurors to be better at judging witness veracity?... Chalmers and colleagues (2022) conducted an extensive and comprehensive investigation into how jurors assess witness veracity. Chalmers and colleagues' research involved two trial reconstructions -- of a non-sexual assault and a rape case -- scripted with input from legal practitioners, performed by actors, and professionally filmed and edited. A total of

Some Cases Last Longer than Imaginable

December 15th, 2022|

A challenging aspect of our trial consulting work is timing. It is always an issue for us to ramp up when we are engaged for a project. There is lead time in all that we do. Some clients, particularly repeat clients, understand this and call us well in advance of their “need.” Other times it is not so much an issue of a short front end, but rather a long, lingering one. I’m thinking of one case we handled, in particular. We did the intake and proposal for the case 10 years before we finally did the mock jury research.

Settle Your Case Honestly: Top 4 Ways to Make the Truth Work for You in Negotiations

December 15th, 2022|

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When the parties in litigation come together to talk about settlement, that might be seen as the “posturing phase.” Each side is trying to convey the strength and unassailability of their case, while predicting an inevitable victory in trial. Some of that might be considered the rational “puffery” that puts the facts in the best light. If that image management, however, reaches the point of outright dishonesty about your case, then it might be less effective than you think. Recent research shows that a party’s dishonesty in the context of a financial negotiation leaves that

Altruism & Helping Behaviors

December 13th, 2022|

Helping is one component of altruism. Other components are an orientation toward other people, instead of to oneself, and a generally prosocial outlook (as opposed to an antisocial outlook). Most theories of altruism include the component of enhancing other people’s welfare at some cost to oneself (in terms of time, money, etc.). Altruistic people are more likely than other people to derive benefit from helping others, such as increased self esteem, pleasure, or hope that their generosity will be reciprocated. Some social psychological theories of altruism consider it to be the opposite of aggression. Interestingly, there is considerably more research

Treat Anti-Corporatism as a Bipartisan Bias

December 12th, 2022|

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: For many years, the reliable bet was that a deep distrust of corporations, and what we might call an anti-corporate bias in a litigation context, is a left-wing phenomenon. While conservatives might generally hew to the sentiment behind the adage that “What’s good for General Motors is good for America,” the left would be the ones thinking that big business is too big, too powerful, and too unregulated. For many years as a litigation consultant, I have collected and followed the data on anti-corporate bias, and this belief was more often true than not. But that

The White-Collar Defense Juror and the “Trump Effect”: An Empirical Analysis

December 8th, 2022|

For the last six years, litigators have pondered the question: Have jurors changed in the wake of the Trump era? Our nation underwent cataclysmic shifts in values and ideologies after Trump’s election in 2016 and became polarized on key social and political issues in unprecedented ways. As issues of racial, gender, and economic inequality rose to the forefront of our national consciousness, many wondered how these would affect the judgments that diverse groups of jurors make about white-collar defendants who are typically (though not always) White, male and wealthy. Do the assumptions about favorable defense jurors often held by white-collar defense lawyers continue

How do jurors treat contracts formed as a result of fraud? | Online Jury Research Update

December 8th, 2022|

People are "contract formalists" (a) putting excessive weight on contracts' written terms (as compared to oral agreements), (b) believing that contracts are formed primarily through formalities such as signature and payment (even though contract law does not require such formalities), and (c) believing that a signed agreement obligates parties to abide by its terms (even when the agreement's terms go unread, the contract is unreasonably lengthy, or the terms are one-sided or unfair) (Wilkinson-Ryan, 2014; Wilkinson-Ryan and Hoffman, 2015). Said differently, people hold signees to a written contract's terms, even when the terms are buried in the fine print of

If It’s a Lie, Call It Out

December 8th, 2022|

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If your opposing counsel has a flair for the dramatic, then at some point in the deposition or cross-examination, you might get to a question like, “So, if my witness says that didn’t happen, then you’d say she is lying, right?” What the lawyer is hoping for in asking a question like that is that you’ll back-track, or hesitate, or in some other way try to evade the accusation. Playing on our instinct for civility in the formal setting of testimony, the lawyer is trying for a cheap way to soften or introduce doubt about

Social Psych = Groups = Juries

December 6th, 2022|

Over the years, many people have asked me what makes me qualified to work as a jury/trial consultant. I explain that I have a Ph.D. in social psychology, which is the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people and situations. Social thinking, social influence, and social behavior are studied by my colleagues and me, with the goal of understanding the ways in which individual and group behavior is influenced by others’ presence and behavior. In consideration of the fact that a jury is comprised of individual jurors, who must work together to

Sequence Your Trial Story: Five Non-Linear Arcs that Change the Emphasis

December 5th, 2022|

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The mantra when persuading juries, judges, and really anyone is often “Keep it simple.” That is for a good reason, and often the simplest way to tell a story is to begin at the beginning and end at the end, working your way straight through the events in sequence. At the same time, the popular dramas and storytelling that surrounds us in novels, movies, and television are replete with examples of alternate ways to tell a story to bring emphasis to a particular part. Shows like Lost or Breaking Bad as well as novels like Slaughterhouse 5 or It will play with the timeline as