Do a Law’s Policy Implications Affect Beliefs About Its Constitutionality? An Experimental Test

@article{citeulike:2812385, abstract = {Abstract\ \ Although a substantial empirical literature has found associations between judges’ political orientation and their judicial decisions, the nature of the relationship between policy preferences and constitutional reasoning remains unclear. In this experimental study, law students were asked to determine the constitutionality of a hypothetical law, where the policy implications of the law were manipulated while holding all legal evidence constant. The data indicate that, even with an incentive to select the ruling best supported by the legal evidence, liberal participants were more likely to overturn laws that decreased taxes than laws that increased taxes. The opposite pattern held for conservatives. The experimental manipulation significantly affected even those participants who believed their policy preferences had no influence on their constitutional decisions.}, author = {Furgeson, Joshua and Babcock, Linda and Shane, Peter }, citeulike-article-id = {2812385}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10979-007-9102-z}, journal = {Law and Human Behavior}, keywords = {decision-making, experimental, law, psychology, socio-legal}, month = {June}, number = {3}, pages = {219--227}, posted-at = {2008-05-19 10:18:17}, priority = {3}, title = {Do a Law’s Policy Implications Affect Beliefs About Its Constitutionality? An Experimental Test}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10979-007-9102-z}, volume = {32}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2812385 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2812385 TI - Do a Law’s Policy Implications Affect Beliefs About Its Constitutionality? An Experimental Test JF - Law and Human Behavior VL - 32 IS - 3 SP - 219 EP - 227 N2 - Abstract  Although a substantial empirical literature has found associations between judges’ political orientation and their judicial decisions, the nature of the relationship between policy preferences and constitutional reasoning remains unclear. In this experimental study, law students were asked to determine the constitutionality of a hypothetical law, where the policy implications of the law were manipulated while holding all legal evidence constant. The data indicate that, even with an incentive to select the ruling best supported by the legal evidence, liberal participants were more likely to overturn laws that decreased taxes than laws that increased taxes. The opposite pattern held for conservatives. The experimental manipulation significantly affected even those participants who believed their policy preferences had no influence on their constitutional decisions. KW - decision-making KW - experimental KW - law KW - psychology KW - socio-legal AU - Furgeson, Joshua AU - Babcock, Linda AU - Shane, Peter PY - 2008/06/14/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10979-007-9102-z ER -