This book asks how federal court judges decide cases when faced with unsettled issues of law. Specifically, how much and why are their decisions influenced by higher court judges or other judges at the same level as themselves? To answer these questions, the author relies on statistical analyses of decisions and interviews with court of appeals judges. The key findings are that judges give serious attention to the work of colleagues of equal authority, but demonstrate substantial independence from the Supreme Court.

This book asks how federal court judges decide cases when faced with unsettled issues of law. Specifically, how much and why are their decisions influenced by higher court judges or other judges at the same level as themselves? To answer these questions, the author relies on statistical analyses of decisions and interviews with court of appeals judges. The key findings are that judges give serious attention to the work of colleagues of equal authority, but demonstrate substantial independence from the Supreme Court.

While scholars in the past several decades have made great progress in explaining what judges do, there remains a certain lack of depth to our understanding. This volume grew from a belief that close examination of the psychological processes underlying judicial decision making can greatly enrich this understanding. The collected essays map ways of incorporating key concepts and findings from psychology into the study of judging.

The first section of the book takes as its starting point the fact that judges make many of the same judgments and decisions that ordinary people make and...