This article follows one published here recently ("Mediate To Overcome Cognitive Biases," Law Tribune, March 25, 2013) drawing on the insights of psychologist Daniel Kahneman from his seminal work, Thinking, Fast and Slow. I described cognitive barriers identified by Kahneman that distort decision-making in conflict situations, adversely affecting both an attorney’s and a client’s judgments in litigating and resolving disputes. In his book, Kahneman summarizes his four decades of research in behavioral psychology, demonstrating how we our processes of cognition can lead to mistakes in reasoning.
Kahneman’s research complements another branch of behavioral psychology about predictions and forecasting. As with cognitive biases, the application to legal disputes of the findings of research on the accuracy of predictions can inform approaches to conflict resolution.
