eprintid: 46500 rev_number: 11 eprint_status: archive userid: 1482 importid: 105 dir: disk0/00/04/65/00 datestamp: 2023-10-27 14:27:51 lastmod: 2023-11-30 08:59:54 status_changed: 2023-11-30 08:59:54 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Plonsky, Ori creators_name: Chen, Daniel L. creators_name: Netzer, Liat creators_name: Steiner, Talya creators_name: Feldman, Yuval creators_idrefppn: 241586631 creators_idrefppn: 246844728 creators_idrefppn: 229448674 creators_halaffid: 1002422;441569 title: Motivational Drivers for Serial Position Effects in High-Stakes Legal Decisions ispublished: pub subjects: subjects_ECO abstract: Experts and employees in many domains make multiple similar but independent decisions in sequence. Often, the serial position of the case in the sequence influences the decision. Explanations for these serial position effects focus on the role of decision makers’ fatigue, but these effects emerge also when fatigue is unlikely. Here, we suggest that serial position effects can emerge due to decision makers’ motivation to be or appear to be consistent. For example, to avoid having inconsistencies revealed, decisions may become more favorable towards the side that is more likely to put a decision under scrutiny. As a context, we focus on the legal domain in which many high-stakes decisions are made in sequence and in which there are clear institutional processes of decision scrutiny. We analyze two field datasets: 386,109 US immigration judges’ decisions on asylum requests and 20,796 jury decisions in 18th century London criminal court. We distinguish between five mechanisms that can drive serial position effects and examine their predictions in these settings. We find that consistent with motivation-based explanations of serial position effects, but inconsistent with fatigue-based explanations, decisions become more lenient as a function of serial position, and the effect persists over breaks. We further find, as is predicted by motivational accounts, that the leniency effect is stronger among more experienced decision makers. By elucidating the different drivers of serial position effects, our investigation clarifies why they are common, when they are expected, and how to reduce them. date: 2023-07 date_type: published id_number: 10.1037/apl0001064 official_url: http://tse-fr.eu/pub/127565 faculty: tse divisions: tse keywords: sequential decision making keywords: judicial decision making keywords: legal decisions keywords: order effects language: en has_fulltext: FALSE doi: 10.1037/apl0001064 view_date_year: 2023 full_text_status: none publication: Journal of Applied Psychology volume: vol. 107 number: n° 8 pagerange: 1137-1156 refereed: TRUE issn: 1939-1854 oai_identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:127565 harvester_local_overwrite: pending harvester_local_overwrite: note harvester_local_overwrite: number harvester_local_overwrite: volume harvester_local_overwrite: creators_idrefppn harvester_local_overwrite: pagerange harvester_local_overwrite: ispublished harvester_local_overwrite: hal_id harvester_local_overwrite: hal_version harvester_local_overwrite: hal_url harvester_local_overwrite: hal_passwd harvester_local_overwrite: creators_halaffid oai_lastmod: 2023-11-29T07:25:20Z oai_set: tse site: ut1 hal_id: hal-04262701 hal_passwd: #xyfthu hal_version: 1 hal_url: https://hal.science/hal-04262701 citation: Plonsky, Ori, Chen, Daniel L. , Netzer, Liat, Steiner, Talya and Feldman, Yuval (2023) Motivational Drivers for Serial Position Effects in High-Stakes Legal Decisions. Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 107 (n° 8). pp. 1137-1156.