Execution of Judgment

Guilty! When lunchtime rolls around, so does the probability of a less favorable courtroom decision for the accused. A study, originally of parole board hearings and more recently of bench trials, has revealed that verdicts are influenced by seemingly irrelevant things, like whether or not the judge has recently eaten. According to the findings, a person is anywhere between two and six times more likely to receive leniency early in the day, or just after lunch or a break, than they are at other times. The further away the judge or jury are from a snack, the lower the defendant’s odds of getting off the hook.

I’ve always hoped that justice is blind. Courthouses around the world are adorned with a statue of a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales and a sword. Her sword stands for the power of the court, her scales for the competing claims of the petitioners. The blindfold (a 15th-century innovation) represents the principle that justice should be blind. The law should be applied without fear or favor, with only cold reason and the facts of the case determining what happens to the accused. 

I want to believe that a judge’s rulings are solely based on rational decisions and written laws, but they are not. As the study revealed, even judges, who are thought to be impartial decision-makers in the pursuit of justice, are subject to the same quirks, biases and imperfections that affect the rest of us. What’s more, they don’t realize it. Though judges are well aware of their own actions, the chances are, they have no idea that their rulings are following a meal pattern. 

It is the number of cases he has heard since his last break, not the number of hours he has been sitting, that affect a judge’s mood. As hunger strikes, decision fatigue sets in and is exacerbated as his blood sugar lowers. For all of us, decision making is mentally draining and, if forced to keep deciding things, we get tired and often opt for the least taxing answer—and in the case of a judge, it appears that “guilty” is the easier verdict.

Out of the courtroom, this kind of “hunger hypothesis” may explain why you shift from “yes” to “no” and “approve” to “deny”—though when it comes to leadership, I would argue that it’s easier to say “yes”. Whichever way the pendulum swings, when decision fatigue begins to take hold, it is the way you carry out your judgment that matters. 

Leading is effectively the execution of judgment; your role is to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions. Every day, you’re making judgments that shape all of your decisions: That person is a bad driver, a lousy planner, a crummy cook. That kind of binary judgment isn’t nice, and when you are a manager it can dramatically impact someone’s career and livelihood. Think about it, you make hiring decisions based on judgment, and you use the same judgment to decide on a career promotion or a raise. It comes into play with everything: Which strategy should we chase? Which product should we build? How do we solve that problem?

This is a really complicated issue. Sometimes we think we are making decisions with the appropriate facts, but we all have unconscious biases that affect our choices. They lead us to hire someone that acts like us, or seems familiar. They cause us to stay away from something we don’t know or don’t understand. 

As the study of judicial decisions reveals, blood sugar changes and decision fatigue unleash our biases. So, when food cravings kick in, you need to suspend your judgment because the verdict you pass may be flawed. Don’t let an empty stomach become a breeding ground for opinions, ideas, and biases that could cloud your judgement. Take a break and replenish yourself so you can reset your mental energy.

At the end of the day, justice may be blind, but it still gets hungry.

Printed originally in Gulf News (06 August 18)

A thinker, speaker, and writer to the core, Dr. Tommy holds a doctorate in strategic leadership from Regent University, and is the founder of EMLC where he is the region's leading CEO Coach. In addition to writing a number of books—including the Amazon #1 best-seller, Leadership Dubai Style and 10 Tips for Leading in the Middle East, Dr. Tommy is the editor-in-chief of Emerging Markets Business—The Authoritative Review.

Follow me on twitter @tommyweir or visit www.tommyweir.com for more of my thoughts on leadership.