By Shawn C. Marsh, PhD
“The law deals fundamentally with human behavior. It deals with choices people make – to do right or wrong, to lie or tell the truth. It deals with perceptions and memories – what color shirt was the mug
By Shawn C. Marsh, PhD
“The law deals fundamentally with human behavior. It deals with choices people make – to do right or wrong, to lie or tell the truth. It deals with perceptions and memories – what color shirt was the mugger wearing? It deals with decision making – should I vote guilty or not guilty?”
[Wargo, E. (2011). From the lab to the courtroom: How psychological scientists are having an impact on the legal system. Observer, 24(9), 10–14(33).]
Note: This is an interactive article. You can click on the highlighted links for resources illustrating or discussing each concept.
Our brains are remarkably efficient. But what price do we pay for efficiency? Sometimes our brains can lead us terribly astray despite our best intentions—and this can have very real implications for the justice system.
Consider issues related to perception and memory. Cognitive psychologists have demonstrated repeatedly that we do not necessarily accurately perceive our world, that we can be so focused on tasks that we miss things right in front of us, and that our memories are more malleable than we think. Perception and memory play a huge role in the justice system—such as understanding the credibility of eyewitness testimony. Specifically, the number one reason innocent people are wrongfully convicted is eyewitness evidence. Perception and memory errors also have implications for non-criminal cases. For example, the suggestibility of memory has real implications for interviewing children in dependency cases, as well as assessing the viability of historical accounts of parties in divorce proceedings. Overall, when it comes to perception and memory, human beings think they notice more than they do, believe they remember more accurately than they do, and underestimate the role of stress and cognitive load in how they interpret the world around them.
Of course, behavior and decisions are not just influenced by how our brain acquires and retrieves information. Humans are very social animals by nature, and our behavior is often shaped by others. Several classic social psychological studies such as the Milgram experiments, the Stanford Prison experiment, and the Asch experiments demonstrate the power of authority, roles, and conformity in shaping human behavior—with very sobering implications for understanding real world events (e.g., Abu Ghraib). As with perception and memory, social influence dynamics also have real implications for the justice system. Specifically, the number two reason innocent people go to jail is false confession. Again, there are implications for non-criminal cases. For example, these lines of research can inform how to best design youth detention programs, as well as help us to better understand behavior in abusive relationships. Central to application to the law, psychological science shows us that human beings are susceptible to engaging in extreme behavior in the presence of authority, are susceptible to adopting behavior consistent with a given role, and are social animals that take cures from others about how they should behave. (In fact, humans are so interconnected that when a person is socially ostracized for even a brief period of time, the part of the brain that detects physical pain is activated.)
In addition to perception, memory, and social influence, bias also can influence our decisions. Bias can be explicit (i.e., we are aware of our preference) or implicit (i.e., we are not aware of our preference). Many justice system professionals are increasingly familiar with the work social scientists are doing to better understand stereotypes, automatic processing of information, and implicit bias (e.g., see Project Implicit). There are, however, many other types of biases: Wikipedia alone lists over 300 types of cognitive biases and fallacies. One example is the just-world hypothesis, which is the tendency for people to want to believe that the world is fundamentally just, causing them t