Psychologist Thomas Gilovich’s How We Know What Isn’t So illuminates the multitude of biases the human mind conjures, along with the dangers of such erroneous beliefs, and Dr. Yael Granot’s neuroscience research emphasizes precisely that. The study described in her article, “Justice Is Not Blind: Visual Attentional Exaggerates Effects of Group Identification on Legal Punishment,” tested the biases that arouse in judging and deciding when confronted with video evidence. She and her colleagues found that affiliation to a particular group (specifically race), based on visual attention measured, impacted the severity of one’s hypothetical ruling of punishing the offender.
I am currently in PHIL/PSYC279: Judgment and Decision Making. The semester began with reading Aristotle, Frankfurt, and Strawson – to name a few – and at first, the philosophical concepts elucidated seemed antiquated. However, in one class, we discussed how children’s perspectives and statements are often discounted. After all, they’re younger, less experienced, and their brains have had considerably less time to develop. We entertained how it may be unwise to dismiss children in favor of an adult viewpoint, especially when it concerns participation in their own pediatric healthcare. When Granot presented about the gaping chasm between perception and reality when it comes to court cases, I instantly considered a connection. Could a child’s account be more reliable – and therefore, valuable – that that of an adult’s?
In the article “Children’s Memory May Be More Reliable Than Adults’ In Court Cases”, the National Science Foundation describes the hypothesis of researchers Valerie Reyna and Chuck Brainerd. They argue that “children depend more heavily on a part of the mind that records, ‘what actually happened,’ while adults depend more on another part of the mind that records, ‘the meaning of what happened.’” The complex adult thought process allows for more space, and thus, distortion, when recollecting and evaluating events. Considering the idea that children are less prone to succumbing to “assigning meaning” that can lead to bias, and considering what Granot found regarding racial biases, children may not have the same conception of race as adults do. This is an idea worth exploring.
From simultaneously taking Judgment and Decision Making, the application philosophy to the present society and relevance to neuroscience became clearer, allowing me to make essential connections between the fields of philosophy, psychology, and neurology. I plan to explore the bridge and applications further as I continue to develop my professional endeavors.
References
Granot, Y., Balcetis, E., Schneider, K. E., & Tyler, T. R. (2014). Justice is not blind: Visual
attention exaggerates effects of group identification on legal punishment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(6), 2196–2208.
National Science Foundation. "Children's Memory May Be More Reliable Than Adults' In Court
Cases." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 March 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080313124445.htm>.
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