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Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

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Daniel S. Medwed

Criminal law

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The Good Fight: The Egocentric Bias, The Aversion To Cognitive Dissonance, And The American Criminal Law, Daniel S. Medwed Feb 2014

The Good Fight: The Egocentric Bias, The Aversion To Cognitive Dissonance, And The American Criminal Law, Daniel S. Medwed

Daniel S. Medwed

The phrase “cognitive bias” often has negative connotations. It is something to be overcome, thwarted, or, at best, circumvented. In this essay, I suggest that two interrelated cognitive biases—the egocentric bias and the aversion to cognitive dissonance—might instead serve as potential assets for a criminal law practitioner in persuading her constituencies.