A Role for Emotional Granularity in Judging
Emotions are traditionally viewed as detrimental to judicial responsibility, a belief rooted in the classical view of the mind as a battle ground between reason and emotion. Drawing on recent developments in psychology and neuroscience we propose that the brain uses past experience, organized as con...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law
2018-12-01
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| Series: | Oñati Socio-Legal Series |
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| Online Access: | https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1101 |
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| author | Maria Gendron Lisa Feldman Barrett |
| author_facet | Maria Gendron Lisa Feldman Barrett |
| author_sort | Maria Gendron |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Emotions are traditionally viewed as detrimental to judicial responsibility, a belief rooted in the classical view of the mind as a battle ground between reason and emotion. Drawing on recent developments in psychology and neuroscience we propose that the brain uses past experience, organized as concepts, to guide actions and give sensations meaning, constructing experiences such as “fear” or “anger”. Wisdom comes from skill at constructing emotions in a more precise and functional way, a skill called “emotional granularity”. Studies show that individuals who are more emotionally granular have better function across a range of domains, including self regulation and decision making. We propose that effective judicial decision-making does not require a dispassionate judge, but a judge who is high in emotional granularity. We lay out an empirical agenda for testing this idea and end by discussing empirically supported recommendations for increasing emotional granularity in the judiciary. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9b71edf804a044ff8822ba2494c985f4 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2079-5971 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-12-01 |
| publisher | Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Oñati Socio-Legal Series |
| spelling | doaj-art-9b71edf804a044ff8822ba2494c985f42024-11-25T15:03:59ZengOñati International Institute for the Sociology of LawOñati Socio-Legal Series2079-59712018-12-019555757610.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-10871010A Role for Emotional Granularity in JudgingMaria Gendron0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1845-6722Lisa Feldman Barrett1Yale UniversityNortheastern University, 3. Department Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical SchoolEmotions are traditionally viewed as detrimental to judicial responsibility, a belief rooted in the classical view of the mind as a battle ground between reason and emotion. Drawing on recent developments in psychology and neuroscience we propose that the brain uses past experience, organized as concepts, to guide actions and give sensations meaning, constructing experiences such as “fear” or “anger”. Wisdom comes from skill at constructing emotions in a more precise and functional way, a skill called “emotional granularity”. Studies show that individuals who are more emotionally granular have better function across a range of domains, including self regulation and decision making. We propose that effective judicial decision-making does not require a dispassionate judge, but a judge who is high in emotional granularity. We lay out an empirical agenda for testing this idea and end by discussing empirically supported recommendations for increasing emotional granularity in the judiciary.https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1101emotiongranularitydecision-making |
| spellingShingle | Maria Gendron Lisa Feldman Barrett A Role for Emotional Granularity in Judging Oñati Socio-Legal Series emotion granularity decision-making |
| title | A Role for Emotional Granularity in Judging |
| title_full | A Role for Emotional Granularity in Judging |
| title_fullStr | A Role for Emotional Granularity in Judging |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Role for Emotional Granularity in Judging |
| title_short | A Role for Emotional Granularity in Judging |
| title_sort | role for emotional granularity in judging |
| topic | emotion granularity decision-making |
| url | https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1101 |
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