TRC #371: Riveted With Jim Davies + Is Polling Effective? + Extraneous Factors & Judicial Decisions

RivetedCognitive scientist and author Jim Davies joins the crew this week for a riveting discussion about his book ‘Riveted.”   Next Adam surveys the evidence about whether political polling is effective.  Lastly, Cristina chews on the question of whether extraneous factors affect judicial decisions. Enjoy!

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Jim Davies and Riveted

Jim Davies

About Riveted

Where To Get ‘Riveted’

Is Polling Effective?

What’s the Matter With Polling? – The New York Times

Why telephone polling used to be the best and why it’s dying out – The Globe and Mail

Extraneous Factors and Judicial Decisions

Wired: To Get Parole, Have Your Case Heard Right After Lunch

PNAS: Extraneous factors in judicial decisions

Discover: Justice Is Served, But More  So After Lunch

Economist: I think It’s Time We Broke For Lunch

Wikipedia: Legal Realism

Wikipedia: Jerome Frank

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4 Responses to TRC #371: Riveted With Jim Davies + Is Polling Effective? + Extraneous Factors & Judicial Decisions

  1. Trevor Walper says:

    The effect of the 2nd most expensive marketing trick is a result of anchoring bias. The effect is likely more effective by listing the most expensive item first, it is also the same reason that the person listed at the top of a ballot gains a boost in elections.

  2. Pierre says:

    I like Jim Davies’s explanation for why judges may get less and less lenient over time. I thought the exact same thing and exulted when he mentioned it. If this has not been advanced as a theory, it should be.

  3. As a teacher myself, I find myself marking papers more “grouchily” as I proceed through them, especially when I find the same mistake over and over. Same goes for excuses. I used to joke to my Saudi ESL students that the hospitals seem to get overloaded with ill grandmothers as final exams closed in them. Therefore I tend to favor the idea that judges simply get less tolerant of excuses as the session wears on…and then “reboot” after a break.

    But my primary reason for writing is to advance the theory (not mine) that wine bars, recognizing that a lot of patrons don’t want to appear chintzy by choosing the cheapest wine on the menu (especially on a date) , will attempt to move the customer to the second wine, which is the one they can make a better profit on. Thus, the cheapest wine acts as an anchor to get the patron to move one notch up.

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