Brains On Purpose™

The 2nd Harvard conference on law and mind sciences

Harvard Law's Project On Law and Mind Sciences is holding its second annual conference: "Ideology, Psychology & Law." The event will be held on March 8, 2008, at Harvard Law School.

Tentative agenda and abstracts:

9:25 – 9:55: Continental Breakfast

10:00 – 10:15: Opening Remarks

10:20 – 12:30: Session 1

Social Psychologists:

•    10:20 – 10:45: Mahzarin R. Banaji, “The Hammer of Ideology”:
If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Ideology is like that, psychologically orienting us to hammer (almost) every judgment and decision with it.  I will offer data on the conscious and unconscious manner in which the mind so hammers, and its consequences for fairness in law.
•    10:50 – 11:15: Brian Nosek, “Ideology and Automaticity”:
Listen to a partisan, and you might believe that ideology is the result of reasoned analysis of social life.  Listen to the evidence, and you might be convinced that the partisans' reasons are the product of ideology, rather than the cause of it. My research group investigates the automatic basis of ideology and moral judgment, and how deliberative reasoning is a secondary act that emboldens or corrects the initial "gut" judgment.
•    11:20 – 11:45: Aaron Kay, “The Psychological Power of the Status Quo”:
Although people tend to view their beliefs, values, and ideology as entirely the product of thoughtful deliberation, it is becoming increasingly clear that such a view is largely mistaken. In this talk, I will describe how the motivation to perceive the current status quo as just, legitimate, and desirable -- an implicit motive known as "system justification" -- exerts powerful and consequential effects on social perception and judgment.  My remarks will focus particularly on the role of system justification in maintaining social inequalities.

Legal Scholars (Moderated Q&A): 11:50 – 12:20:

•    Yochai Benkler
•    Elizabeth Warren

12:25 – 1:00: Lunch

1:05 – 1:15: Michael McCann, The Situationist Blog

1:20 – 3:15: Session 2

BrainWave in New York

A number of the programs being presented by BrainWave are related to conflict resolution. What's BrainWave? From the BrainWave Web site:

BRAINWAVE asks how art, music, and meditation affect the brain and offers countless answers in more than a hundred public events, ranging from an exhibition of contemporary art and a cinema series to cutting-edge concerts, performances, talks, and panels.

The events last through June. Some look terrific. For example:

• Secret Life of the Brain [several sessions looking at the baby's brain through the aging brain]
• Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
• Storytelling
• The Amygdala
• Welcome to Your Brain
• The Mirror and the Lamp [the imaginative process]
• Fear
• The Narcissist and the Recluse
• The Satyagraha Synapse [psychology of nonviolence]
• Train to Happiness

Are any of you attending a BrainWave program?

Christmas greetings—and some carols for you, too

Merry Christmas to all!
(carols below the photo)




And here are 100 holiday songs for you.

Photo credit: lpelletier at photobucket

Sign to a post on neurolaw

For those of you interested in the developing field of neurolaw, I have posted some cautionary words about neurolaw at idealawg.

Therapeutic jurisprudence: Some thoughts and resources

Knowledge of the brain and the mind, and of their role in conflict and its resolution, is not only helpful in alternative dispute resolution but also in adversarial proceedings. Neuroscience certainly should have its place at the table when the discussion is about how to make any kind of dispute resolution as effective, appropriate, and respectful as possible.

And neuroscience can contribute valuable insight to the discussions about therapeutic jurisprudence.

"Legal Proceedings Can Be Therapeutic, Study Finds," an article from earlier this week in Science Daily, begins with an explanation of therapeutic jurisprudence . . .

It may seem that therapy and law do not share a common bond, but one University of Arizona law professor is making that connection by developing a body of knowledge to prove that legal proceedings can be calming and supportive.

The theory and practice David B. Wexler helped create -- termed "therapeutic jurisprudence" -- could strengthen interactions between clients and judges and improve the way trials and hearings run. It also could change negative perceptions about law.

"Law school teaches you about rules, arguments and logic -- but not the impact of the law on the emotional life or well-being of people," says Wexler, a distinguished research professor in the James E. Rogers College of Law. "That has been an underappreciated aspect of the law -- a dimension of the law that has been ignored."

Wexler says a goal of therapeutic jurisprudence is to "mitigate the stress and trauma associated with the legal process." Of course, one way to facilitate that goal is to know how the mind and brain are