Authors
Ivar Fahsing, Asbjørn Rachlew, Lennart May
Publication date
2023/3
Journal
The Police Journal
Volume
96
Issue
1
Pages
45-60
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Description
Fundamental challenges in human decision-making pose a serious threat to fair evidence evaluation, verdicts in court proceedings, and the administration of justice. Drawing on cognitive psychology, we examined whether a consider-the-opposite approach can assist police officers with positive guidance on how to implement crucial legal thresholds such as the presumption of innocence. In an experiment with sworn police officers (N = 100), we compared a consider-the-opposite condition and a control condition (with no further instructions) and measured the formulated alternative hypotheses. The results show a promising debiasing effect of the consider-the-opposite approach which may strengthen fundamental principles of criminal law.
Total citations
2022202320248108