Source of article ComCon - Communication Consulting.

Our reactions to events are determined not only by what actually happened, but also by what might have happened. Jurors think about what might have happened using “if only” statements: if only a driver had been going slower, if only a worker had been wearing goggles, if only the warning label had said so, if only a company had investigated the complaint. These “if only” thoughts are called counterfactual thinking. Sometimes it is easy for jurors to engage in counterfactual thinking and imagine events occurring otherwise, and sometimes it is hard to do so. The ease with which jurors can imagine alternative events affects their understandings and verdicts. Kahneman and Tversky…