Yale University Library News

Who Sees What? Experimental Examinations of Factual and Legal Judgments

May 15, 2017

Can ordinary people be expected to put aside their political predispositions when they serve as jurors in politically charged cases? Are judges just "politicians in robes?" This talk by Dan Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School, will present experimental data addressing these questions and others that bear on the impartiality of law. Join us on Wednesday May 24 at 2:00 pm in William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall Street) Room 119.

Dan Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School. His primary research interests are risk perception and science communication. He is a member of the Cultural Cognition Project, an interdisciplinary team of scholars who use empirical methods to examine the impact of group values on perceptions of risk and related facts. In studies funded by the National Science Foundation, his research has investigated public disagreement over climate change, public reactions to emerging technologies, and conflicting public impressions of scientific consensus. Articles featuring the Project’s studies have appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed scholarly journals including the Journal of Risk Research, Judgment and Decision Making, Nature Climate Change, Science, and Nature. He is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

All are welcome to join us for this forum sponsored by SCOPA.