Law Commons^™

This Article suggests that people tend to undervalue their procedural rights — their proverbial “day in court” — until they are actually involved in a dispute. The Article argues that the inherent, outcome-independent value of participating in a dispute resolution process comes largely from its power to soothe a person’s grievance — their perception of unfairness and accompanying negative emotional reaction — win or lose. But a tendency to assume unchanging emotional states, known in behavioral economics as projection bias, can prevent people from anticipating that they might become aggrieved and from appreciating the grievance-soothing power of process. When this …