Implicit Bias in Judicial Decision Making How It Affects Judgment and What Judges Can Do About It

Abstract

This Chapter reviews research indicating that judges, like most adults, rely too heavily on intuition while making important decisions. This tendency leaves them vulnerable to using overly simplistic cognitive strategies to decide cases, which creates predictable, systematic errors in judgment. It can also facilitate a reliance on implicit race and gender biases while deciding cases. Numerous strategies are available that would allow judges to stop and deliberate more carefully. This Chapter also describes these strategies. If adopted, judges would avoid excessive reliance on intuition and implicit biases so as to make better, more just judgments.