Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-making
Heuristics, characterized as concise cognitive shortcuts rooted in intuitive reasoning, are both capable of facilitating swift judgments and cognitive efficiency, but also introducing cognitive biases during decision-making. The judicial domain, renowned for its demanding decision-making processes,...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-03-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Cognition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcogn.2025.1421488/full |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850098039373430784 |
|---|---|
| author | Amaryllis-Chryssi Malegiannaki Athanasios Chatzopoulos Konstantinos Tsagkaridis |
| author_facet | Amaryllis-Chryssi Malegiannaki Athanasios Chatzopoulos Konstantinos Tsagkaridis |
| author_sort | Amaryllis-Chryssi Malegiannaki |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Heuristics, characterized as concise cognitive shortcuts rooted in intuitive reasoning, are both capable of facilitating swift judgments and cognitive efficiency, but also introducing cognitive biases during decision-making. The judicial domain, renowned for its demanding decision-making processes, is an interesting field for studying heuristics. In this study, we developed a novel Judicial Heuristics Assessment Questionnaire (J-HAQ) and administered it to a sample of 52 judges (20 males, Mage = 45.50, SD = 8.10), with active duty in various courts across Greece. We also evaluated their analytical System 2 thinking skills using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). This research pursued three objectives: (a) to explore the psychometric properties of the J-HAQ; (b) to investigate the correlation between judges' perceived use of heuristics/metacognitive awareness and their objective performance on reflective thinking; (c) to assess the correlation of self-reported usage of different heuristics and explore the influence of judges' demographics (educational level, gender, age, and years of experience) in the utilization of the reported heuristics in decision-making. Findings from a Principal Component Analysis on J-HAQ scores revealed four distinct factors (Availability, Confirmation Bias, Representativeness, and Anchoring) demonstrating sufficient reliability. We also report a significant correlation between CRT scores and reported use of the anchoring heuristic (ρ = 0.29, p = 0.04). Finally, we discovered two clusters defined by different awareness of the use of various heuristics, as well as significant association of educational level with this usage. Despite the limitations of a relatively small sample size, these findings reveal a dynamic for further interesting results from research in this domain. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a07a6782cdc94d919b396f466bf1cc1e |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2813-4532 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-a07a6782cdc94d919b396f466bf1cc1e2025-08-20T02:40:48ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Cognition2813-45322025-03-01410.3389/fcogn.2025.14214881421488Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-makingAmaryllis-Chryssi MalegiannakiAthanasios ChatzopoulosKonstantinos TsagkaridisHeuristics, characterized as concise cognitive shortcuts rooted in intuitive reasoning, are both capable of facilitating swift judgments and cognitive efficiency, but also introducing cognitive biases during decision-making. The judicial domain, renowned for its demanding decision-making processes, is an interesting field for studying heuristics. In this study, we developed a novel Judicial Heuristics Assessment Questionnaire (J-HAQ) and administered it to a sample of 52 judges (20 males, Mage = 45.50, SD = 8.10), with active duty in various courts across Greece. We also evaluated their analytical System 2 thinking skills using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). This research pursued three objectives: (a) to explore the psychometric properties of the J-HAQ; (b) to investigate the correlation between judges' perceived use of heuristics/metacognitive awareness and their objective performance on reflective thinking; (c) to assess the correlation of self-reported usage of different heuristics and explore the influence of judges' demographics (educational level, gender, age, and years of experience) in the utilization of the reported heuristics in decision-making. Findings from a Principal Component Analysis on J-HAQ scores revealed four distinct factors (Availability, Confirmation Bias, Representativeness, and Anchoring) demonstrating sufficient reliability. We also report a significant correlation between CRT scores and reported use of the anchoring heuristic (ρ = 0.29, p = 0.04). Finally, we discovered two clusters defined by different awareness of the use of various heuristics, as well as significant association of educational level with this usage. Despite the limitations of a relatively small sample size, these findings reveal a dynamic for further interesting results from research in this domain.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcogn.2025.1421488/fullheuristicscognitive biasawarenessreflective thinkingmetacognitiondecision-making |
| spellingShingle | Amaryllis-Chryssi Malegiannaki Athanasios Chatzopoulos Konstantinos Tsagkaridis Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-making Frontiers in Cognition heuristics cognitive bias awareness reflective thinking metacognition decision-making |
| title | Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-making |
| title_full | Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-making |
| title_fullStr | Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-making |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-making |
| title_short | Assessing judges' use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision-making |
| title_sort | assessing judges use and awareness of cognitive heuristic decision making |
| topic | heuristics cognitive bias awareness reflective thinking metacognition decision-making |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcogn.2025.1421488/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT amaryllischryssimalegiannaki assessingjudgesuseandawarenessofcognitiveheuristicdecisionmaking AT athanasioschatzopoulos assessingjudgesuseandawarenessofcognitiveheuristicdecisionmaking AT konstantinostsagkaridis assessingjudgesuseandawarenessofcognitiveheuristicdecisionmaking |