Post-Conference Review
The Empirical Psychology of Decision Making: The Brain and the Unseen Components of Bias
by Crystal L. Banks

This session was offered as part of the many topics coordinated by the Diversity Committee and was also an experiment into the ever changing world of technology. The session was taught by Jack Grinband, Ph.D., a research psychologist and scientist currently working on experiments at Columbia University and Kimberly Papillon, an attorney and a Senior Education Specialist at CJER’s Education Department who was not on location but rather in the wilderness on a pre-planned family vacation. She taught her portion of the session by way of speaker phone and an on location PowerPoint presentation while Dr. Grinband appeared “live” with the audience and a moderator.

The workshop explored access to fairness issues within courtrooms and courthouses as we looked at how deliberation and instinctive or unconscious processing combine to drive decision-making. Concepts such as physiological reactions during decision-making as seen through MRI’s, unconscious processing, the halo effect, and stereotypes were investigated.

Originally we were hopeful that we would be able to “SKYPE” Kimberly into the session but were unable to do so because her location was too remote to lend itself to a strong enough signal. However, the session was still able to be conducted while an audience of participants was able to listen and discuss the subject matter of how our brains work to include or disassociate our biases toward things, including how we feel about people who are different than ourselves. It was quite interesting as Dr. Grinband pointed out that in many cases, these feelings are something that we all have and cannot do anything about other than to be aware that they exist and use our learned training to compensate for them. Issues of race, gender, educational level and profession were all discussed during the session.

The session was fairly interactive and required audience participation. In all, it was a session that demanded that we take an honest look at ourselves, our perceptions of others and how we interact with others based on these perceptions. With the studies that Dr. Grinband and Ms. Papillon put on display, it was far easier to embrace the idea that this is something common to all human brains and therefore not the “fault” or prejudice of any one person, but a part of all of us. The true test lies with what we do with this information and how we use it to make our lives and the lives of others more equitable.

If you are thinking of doing something like this session in your jurisdiction, please contact Dr. Jack Grinband at or Kimberly Papillon at to see if they would be available to present for you. You will certainly not be disappointed!

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