Forensic Social Worker Expert Bias

Bias is a serious problem in our legal system. Cognitive heuristics, or mental shortcuts, including the availability heuristic, representative heuristic, and anchoring/adjustment heuristic give rise to some of these biases (e.g., Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). In an effort to understand and mitigate the biasing effects of heuristics on decision making, I will illustrate how cognitive heuristics impact forensic mental health expert decision making. Our research will employ an experimental design to explore the role of confirmation bias (akin to the availability heuristic) in forensic social worker decision making in a simulated child abuse case.