A profound and prolific Danish existentialist philosopher, theologian, psychologist, social critic and writer in nineteenth century, Søren Kierkegaard, stated “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” His statement is exactly what to refer to in how cognitive biases may affect judicial decisions. The judges or jurors in the court are limited human observers; therefore, they are confined by the boundaries of human cognition (Peer and Gamliel unk.).
II. Research questions
Just as certain patterns of visual stimuli can fool people’s eyesight, leading them to see images that are not really present such as cases in the dessert; certain fact patterns can fool people’s judgment, leading them to believe things that are not really true. This research paper is written to analyze the effects of cognitive biases, especially confirmation bias, hindsight bias and conjunction …show more content…
There are different types of cognitive biases but in judicial decisions, however, these three types of cognitive biases are commonly acknowledged and studied in the hearing process.
Confirmation Bias: is the human tendency search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions (Jermias, 2001). In addition, individuals may discredit information that does not support their views. They manifest bias when they collect or retain information in a selective manner, or when they interpret it favorably. The impact of confirmation bias is stronger toward issues related to emotion, or beliefs ingrained in one’s consciousness. Individuals also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence to support their positions (Baron 2000:195) (Plous