The Science of Justice
May 16, 2011
Major media outlets such as The Economist and The New York Times continue to be fascinated by the BGU study that found truth to the saying that justice is “what the judge ate for breakfast.”
The study by Dr. Shai Danziger of BGU’s Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management followed eight judges over a ten-month period who conducted 1,000 parole board.
The plaintiffs were asking either to be allowed out on parole or to have the conditions of their incarceration changed. The team found that, at the start of the day, the judges granted around two-thirds of the applications before them. As the hours passed, that number fell sharply, eventually reaching zero.
But clemency returned after each of two daily breaks, during which the judges had something to eat. The approval rate shot back up to near its original value, before falling again as the day wore on.
Read more in The Economist and The New York Times>>
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