Guest
Ideally, judges’ decisions should always be impartial, rational and unbiased. After all, ‘Lady Justice’ wears a blindfold and carefully balances the scales of justice. However, remarkable recent research from behavioural science and social psychology is beginning to show why ‘Lady Justice’ (and all she stands for) is not quite what she seems. Judging is a tricky and very human business. In this talk, Dr Brian Barry tells us about research that ‘judges the judges’ showing some unnerving results: psychological errors, biases, poor numerical reasoning, and excessive emotion may all have a bearing on judicial outcomes. Brian is a lecturer in law and a researcher in judicial systems and judicial decision-making. His research investigates how factors, other than law, affect judges when they make decisions. He is currently writing a book called How Judges Judge: Insights into judicial decision-making that assimilates and analyses global research on the psychological, institutional and political forces that can impa
