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by
Susanne
Loftis
If you
want
to know
what’s
inside
the
judicial
mind,
ask
Chris
Guthrie.
Guthrie,
who
just
joined
the
faculty
of the
Vanderbilt
University
Law
School
as a
professor
of law,
makes
it his
business
to understand
how
judges—as
well
as attorneys
and
their
clients—make
decisions.
He came
to Vanderbilt
from
the
University
of Missouri
School
of Law,
where
he was
associate
dean,
associate
professor
and
senior
fellow
at the
Center
for
the
Study
of Dispute
Resolution.
While
there,
he co-authored
“Inside
the
Judicial
Mind,”
an article
that,
as he
puts
it,
has
taken
on a
life
of its
own.
The
article,
and
several
subsequent
related
publications,
has
attracted
quite
a bit
of media
attention,
including
a story
in The
New
York
Times.
“People
have
this
idea
that
when
a judge
slips
into
her
robes,
she
puts
on a
cloak
of wisdom,”
Guthrie
said.
“What
we found—and
it shouldn’t
be surprising—is
that
judges
are
human.
They
make
decisions
essentially
the
same
way
the
rest
of us
do,
taking
the
same
intellectual
‘shortcuts’
and
falling
victim
to the
same
cognitive
illusions.”
Guthrie’s
studies
of judicial
decision
making
use
actual
federal
and
state
judges
in experimental
vignettes.
Guthrie
earned
his
undergraduate
degree
from
Stanford
University,
a master’s
degree
in counseling
psychology
from
Harvard
Graduate
School
of Education
and
his
law
degree
from
Stanford
Law
School.
He became
interested
in the
psychological
aspects
of the
law
when,
as a
law
student,
he was
named
a research
fellow
at Stanford
Center
on Conflict
and
Negotiation.
There,
he worked
under
the
tutelage
of both
law
and
psychology
professors.
His
scholarship
is at
the
intersection
of “behavioral
law
and
economics”
(or
“legal
decision
theory”)
and
dispute
resolution.
By conducting
research
and
teaching
classes
in dispute
resolution
and
negotiation,
he helps
law
students
understand
behavior—why
people
do what
they
do—so
that
they
are
in a
better
position
to represent
their
clients,
understand
their
counterparts,
anticipate
outcomes
and
evaluate
important
legal
rules.
So is
he a
good
negotiator?
“I
think
it’s
fair
to say
that
through
teaching,
researching
and
writing
about
dispute
resolution,
I have
become
more
comfortable
with
conflict
and
more
competent
at the
bargaining
table.
Of course,
this
could
be a
cognitive
illusion.”
Posted
on 9/23,
2002
at 12:30
p.m.
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