Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:26:24.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Framing the Jury: Cognitive Perspective on Pain and Suffering Awards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Edward J. McCaffery
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
Daniel J. Kahneman
Affiliation:
Public Affairs at Princeton University
Matthew L. Spitzer
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
Cass R. Sunstein
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Get access

Summary

Scholars working in various areas of cognitive psychology and decision theory have long noted that there is a difference in how one values an item based solely on how one perceives it relative to the status quo: whether one views a given matter as a gain or a loss, say. In the case of jury instructions, a relevant difference may be between how much one needs to be paid to be made whole, once an injury has already taken place (a “making whole” perspective), versus how much one would have to be paid to subject herself to the injury in the first place (a “selling price” perspective). While there is a growing literature on the psychology of the jury, we are aware of no study that has examined how the framing of jury instructions in accordance with these perspectives might affect monetary awards for pain and suffering.

A parallel omission characterizes the legal literature on tort theory. Until fairly recently there has been a greater focus on liability rules than on the determination of damages. The emergent literature on damages has tended to focus on the sometimes competing rationales of compensation, insurance, corrective justice, deterrence, or efficiency. This general literature has been supplemented with periodic complaints of a torts “crisis” featuring overly generous damage awards; critics sometimes focus more particularly on pain and suffering or so-called nonpecuniary damages.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×