The article, “Attorneys Tend Toward Overconfidence, Researchers Find,” (May 13, page 6) on case outcome predictions reports that 55 percent of men in the study met their stated goals while 64 percent of women did so. “In many aspects of professional life, men are more aggressive, Ms. Loftus said. Men ask for things, fight for raises and advancements, and women are a little more placid. Maybe those are related.”
Is it not possible that the results are simply due to women attorneys being more realistic in their assessment of cases? Perhaps the investigator was too passive to consider the possibility that the women in the study were actually more skillful than the men.
Elizabeth Salan
Brooklyn, N.Y.
