March 2021 Bar Bulletin
During a recent mock trial, several mock jurors locked horns. A middle-aged female voiced strong bias against the defendant for failures the plaintiff was not even alleging. In the next breath, an older female mock juror fought back, critical of the plaintiff for her qualities as a mother — another mostly irrelevant issue.
Ultimately, mock jurors’ most pro-plaintiff arguments were based on strong feelings of sympathy and motivated reasoning driven by hindsight bias — a bad injury must have been avoidable. However, jurors’ most pro-defense arguments were also based on biases — personal attacks on the plaintiff and criticisms of behavior that had little to...