Confirmation Bias And The Courtroom: How To Mitigate The Impact Of Attorney And Juror Biases On Litigation

Confirmation bias is the tendency for people to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms their preexisting beliefs. Conversely, confirmation bias drives the same people to dismiss or ignore information that supports a different viewpoint.

Confirmation bias is a heuristic or mental shortcut that developed as a way for people to make sense of and provide order in a complex world.

Rather than exerting the cognitive effort needed for considering new or different information, people more easily construct their world using information that fits into their existing viewpoints.

Confirmation bias can be found in many facets of everyday behavior and can exert great influence in how people process information and make decisions in politics, finance, medicine, personal relationships, and our legal system.

For our purposes, we will examine ways confirmation bias can impact litigation and the trial process, specifically with regard to how attorneys present evidence and how jurors perceive and process this information.