By Natalie Gordon, M.A., DOAR analyst What makes for an effective anecdote? In health research, good anecdotes are considered an exercise in generalization: “We have generalized from the data to the anecdote; we can generalize from the anecdote about the data and generalize to other contexts and populations.”[1] Applying this to a trial setting, your party’s narrative or case theme might be viewed as the “data,” and the “other contexts and populations” might refer to your jurors and their own personal experiences. Thus, the anecdote connects your narrative to your jurors; it makes your story relatable. But anecdotes do more

In DOAR’s web series “Sidebar,” Jury Consultant Roy Futterman, Ph.D. provides his insights, analysis and commentary on the state of the world from the intersection of the legal system, popular culture and the zeitgeist. Join us for a heady mélange of juries, judges, the nature of consciousness, physics, metaphysics, the multiverse, the Oracle at Delphi, edibles before dinner, something tangentially related to the law, and the illusory feeling of having a self, won’t you? The post Sidebar Ep 8: Post-Ownership Society appeared first on DOAR.

In DOAR’s web series “Sidebar,” Jury Consultant Roy Futterman, Ph.D. provides his insights, analysis and commentary on the state of the world from the intersection of the legal system, popular culture and the zeitgeist. Join us for a heady mélange of juries, judges, the nature of consciousness, physics, metaphysics, the multiverse, the Oracle at Delphi, edibles before dinner, something tangentially related to the law, and the illusory feeling of having a self, won’t you? The post Sidebar Ep 7: Are jurors seeing rigged systems everywhere? appeared first on DOAR.

In DOAR’s web series “Sidebar,” Jury Consultant Roy Futterman, Ph.D. provides his insights, analysis and commentary on the state of the world from the intersection of the legal system, popular culture and the zeitgeist. Join us for a heady mélange of juries, judges, the nature of consciousness, physics, metaphysics, the multiverse, the Oracle at Delphi, edibles before dinner, something tangentially related to the law, and the illusory feeling of having a self, won’t you? The post Sidebar Ep 5: Has the MeToo movement affected juries? appeared first on DOAR.

By Natalie Gordon, M.A., DOAR analyst Do you want the good news or the bad news first? We are all familiar with this phrase, and when we use it, it is because we are hoping the bad news will be mitigated by the good news. In other words, we want the positive feeling from the good news to spill over and lessen the blow of the bad news. Concerns about so-called “spillover effects” abound in the legal system. As a result, trial separation (“bifurcation”) is used in cases where evidence about one decision might bias a separate, but related decision.

As deliberations in the Paul Manafort fraud trial continue, DOAR Director Roy Futterman discusses the unique pressures on the jurors in this politically-charged case. Read the entire article here. The post Pressures rise on the Manafort jury, according to Roy Futterman in Reuters appeared first on DOAR.

While everyone mulls the significance of the Paul Manafort fraud trial jury’s four questions at the end of the first day of deliberations, DOAR Director Roy Futterman cautions against over-analyzing them, based on his experience sweating deliberations. Read the entire article here. The post Roy Futterman discusses Manafort jury questions with Reuters appeared first on DOAR.

In DOAR’s web series “Sidebar,” Jury Consultant Roy Futterman, Ph.D. provides his insights, analysis and commentary on the state of the world from the intersection of the legal system, popular culture and the zeitgeist. Join us for a heady mélange of juries, judges, the nature of consciousness, physics, metaphysics, the multiverse, the Oracle at Delphi, edibles before dinner, something tangentially related to the law, and the illusory feeling of having a self, won’t you? The post Sidebar – Episode 4: Stabilizing appeared first on DOAR.

By Natalie Gordon, M.A., Ph.D. student, DOAR analyst When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, many Americans asked—how did this happen?  Some attributed it to James Comey’s decision to re-open the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails just days earlier, while others looked farther back in time to Trump’s success on the Apprentice.  This investigation into what led Trump to become President exemplifies the human inclination to create causal chains when trying to understand events.  And we do this all the time, whether we’re trying to understand public events like the space shuttle disaster or the 9/11 attack, or private

In DOAR’s web series “Sidebar,” Jury Consultant Roy Futterman, Ph.D. provides his insights, analysis and commentary on the state of the world from the intersection of the legal system, popular culture and the zeitgeist. Join us for a heady mélange of juries, judges, the nature of consciousness, physics, metaphysics, the multiverse, the Oracle at Delphi, edibles before dinner, something tangentially related to the law, and the illusory feeling of having a self, won’t you? The post Sidebar – Episode 3: Simulating appeared first on DOAR.