I was perusing the internet recently and came upon an interesting study about our memory. When recalling events, we make things up and do not even realize it. In “Eyewitness Imagination: How Our Minds Change Our Memories”, Matthew J. Sharps, Ph.D. discusses a common error in eyewitness testimony in criminal [Read More]
Recently, I read an article in the New York Times about the illusion of control, and it struck me how very appropriate it was given the pandemic. The illusion of control is a tendency we all have to overestimate our ability to control events. Thus, we feel or believe that [Read More]
That is what my husband said to me a few weeks ago. Needless to say, working from home and in close quarters with hubby for more than three months and continuing does have its moments. So- on one of those days, I was grumpy. My response to him was simple, [Read More]
In its February 20, 2020 edition, The Economist published an article entitled, “Do not rely on Facial expressions for how people are feeling.” Noting that both Aristotle and Cicero believed that “...the face was a window onto a person’s mind”, the authors commented that more than 2000 years later, we [Read More]
An unknown author on the Harvard Negotiation PON Blog staff posted a blog on April 9, 2020 entitled “How Mood Affects Negotiators” which discusses “What …social psychologists [are] learning about the connections among emotions, negotiators and decision making.” (Id.) The blog post notes that researcher Jennifer S. Lerner of the [Read More]
As a mediator, I must be careful with the words I use during a mediation. In fact, I need to be careful with my words all of the time. I was reminded of this admonition by an article in The New York Times on March 3, 2020 entitled, “How To [Read More]
Being involved in a lawsuit or even just in a dispute can be stressful, worrisome if not anxiety ridden. Believe it or not, being the mediator trying to help the parties resolve their dispute can also be stressful, worrisome, and anxiety producing. The mediator never really knows what is going [Read More]
Readers of my blog probably realize by now that one of my favorite topics is cognitive biases which “…refer to a range of systematic errors in human decision- making from the tendency to use mental shortcuts. “( “How Common Mental Shortcuts Can Cause Major Physician Errors” by Anupam B. Jena [Read More]
