Cognitive Biases and International Law: What’s the Point of Critique?

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Ingo Venzke
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Progressive Change ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
State Of Affairs

One of the main aims of critique is to work towards progressive change. What are critical scholarship’s assumptions about how that change should happen? And do they hold? In the present chapter, I focus on three characteristic traits of critique: seeing law as part of the problem; emphasizing law’s relative indeterminacy; and carving out contingencies in the law’s past. Critique has exposed and countered several dynamics that render the present state of affairs more natural, necessary, and just. Social psychological research has notably drawn attention to people’s longing to live in a world that they consider just—which is a world in which things appear to happen for a reason. Research has further drawn attention to the bias of hindsight and dynamics of ex post rationalization. In short, there are many concerns, tropes, and even vocabularies that are shared between critical legal scholarship and social psychological research. Yet, divides between the two still remain deep.

Automation Bias, Accountability, and Verification Behaviors

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 204-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen L. Mosier ◽  
Linda J. Skitka ◽  
Mark D. Burdick ◽  
Susan T. Heers
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Decision Aids ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Commission Errors ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Glass Cockpit ◽  
Omission Errors

Automated procedural and decision aids may in some cases have the paradoxical effect of increasing errors rather than eliminating them. Results of recent research investigating the use of automated systems have indicated the presence automation bias, a term describing errors made when decision makers rely on automated cues as a heuristic replacement for vigilant information seeking and processing (Mosier & Skitka, in press). Automation commission errors, i.e., errors made when decision makers take inappropriate action because they over-attend to automated information or directives, and automation omission errors, i.e., errors made when decision makers do not take appropriate action because they are not informed of an imminent problem or situation by automated aids, can result from this tendency. A wide body of social psychological research has found that many cognitive biases and resultant errors can be ameliorated by imposing pre-decisional accountability, which sensitizes decision makers to the need to construct compelling justifications for their choices and how they make them. To what extent these effects generalize to performance situations has yet to be empirically established. The two studies presented represent concurrent efforts, with student and “glass cockpit” pilot samples, to determine the effects of accountability pressures on automation bias and on verification of the accurate functioning of automated aids. Students (Experiment 1) and commercial pilots (Experiment 2) performed simulated flight tasks using automated aids. In both studies, participants who perceived themselves “accountable” for their strategies of interaction with the automation were significantly more likely to verify its correct functioning, and committed significantly fewer automation-related errors than those who did not report this perception.

scholarly journals The Control of Managerial Discretion: Evidence from Unionization's Impact on Employment Segregation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John-Paul Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Minority Representation ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Personnel Practices ◽  
Social Psychological Research

Does limiting managers’ discretion limit organizations’ scope fordiscrimination? Social-psychological research argues that it limitsopportunities to exercise cognitive biases. Organizational research hasfound that formal personnel practices that establish accountability forworkplace diversity have increased women and minority representation inmanagement. However, drawing causal inferences from such studies iscomplicated because adopting such policies may be endogenous to the firm’swish to hire and promote women and minorities. This study uses unionizationelections to conduct a regression-discontinuity test from which strongercausal inferences can be made. I find that while unionization is associatedwith more representative workplaces and more women and minorities inmanagement, these effects disappear close to the discontinuity threshold.Most of the effects of unionization on workforce diversity may beattributable to the unobserved drivers of selection into unionization. Thishas similar implications for the causal effects of diversity policiesadopted by managers.

On Social Psychological Handy Work: An Interpretive Review of The Handbook of Social Psychology, Second Edition

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 1109-1120
Author(s):  
Richard M. Merelman
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Leadership Behavior ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Selective Perception ◽  
Social Psychological Research

This paper reviews the new Handbook of Social Psychology, with a special eye towards its utility for political scientists. The review focuses on theory, methodology, substantive areas of social psychological research, and political applications of social psychological findings. Special attention is paid to Handbook articles of particular merit and application to political science. These include articles on cognitive theory, experimentation, observational analyses and sociometry, as well as articles which add to our knowledge of such politically important problems as reasoning, compliance, and decision making. Throughout, important findings relevant to the operations of politics are spotlighted. These include, inter alia, cognitive biases towards the perception of unequal influence, the “risky shift,” constraints on selective perception, and characteristics of leadership behavior. Omissions, theoretical flaws, and errors due to the “datedness” of findings are also discussed.

Interculturalism and the Acceptance of Minority Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Situational Effect

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.

zy prawda nas wyzwoli? Przełamywanie oporu psychologicznego w przyjmowaniu wiedzy o Zagładzie

2014 ◽  
pp. 803-822
Author(s):  
Marta Witkowska ◽  
Piotr Forecki
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Research ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Holocaust Education ◽  
Positive Group ◽  
Nazi Occupation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Social Psychological Research

The introduction of the programs on Holocaust education in Poland and a broader debate on the transgressions of Poles against the Jews have not led to desired improvement in public knowledge on these historical events. A comparison of survey results from the last two decades (Bilewicz, Winiewski, Radzik, 2012) illustrates mounting ignorance: the number of Poles who acknowledge that the highest number of victims of the Nazi occupation period was Jewish systematically decreases, while the number of those who think that the highest number of victims of the wartime period was ethnically Polish, increases. Insights from the social psychological research allow to explain the psychological foundations of this resistance to acknowledge the facts about the Holocaust, and indicate the need for positive group identity as a crucial factor preventing people from recognizing such a threatening historical information. In this paper we will provide knowledge about the ways to overcome this resistance-through-denial. Implementation of such measures could allow people to accept responsibility for the misdeeds committed by their ancestors.

From Help Giving to Helping Relations

2018 ◽  
pp. 464-488
Author(s):  
Arie Nadler
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Help Giving ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Practical Implications

This chapter reviews social psychological research on help giving and helping relations from the 1950s until today. The first section considers the conditions under which people are likely to help others, personality dispositions that characterize helpful individuals, and motivational and attributional antecedents of helpfulness. The second section looks at long-term consequences of help and examines help in the context of enduring and emotionally significant relationships. Research has shown that in the long run help can increase psychological and physical well-being for helpers but discourage self-reliance for recipients. The third section analyzes helping from intra- and intergroup perspectives, considering how its provision can contribute to helpers’ reputations within a group or promote the positive social identity of in-groups relative to out-groups. Help is thus conceptualized as a negotiation between the fundamental psychological needs for belongingness and independence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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