Law and psychology expert details journey to current post
by Darren Schenck
Surrounded by family, friends, faculty and peers, Dan Simon formally accepted the Richard L. and Maria B. Crutcher Professorship in Law and Psychology at Town and Gown last week.
Richard L. and Maria B. Crutcher
Professor Dan Simon
A widely published scholar in the area of law and psychology, Simon described the unlikely journey to his current academic post.
“Not so long ago, if you had told me that I would be standing here under these circumstances, I would have asked for a taster of whatever you had just been ingesting,” Simon joked. “There is no way that I could have conjured up this eventuality.”
Simon said he had not set out to become an academic or an experimental psychologist. A native of Israel, he had never even considered living in the U.S.
“Which brings me to the key ingredient of this journey: good fortune, serendipity—or, to be a bit more direct—sheer luck,” Simon told the audience. “Another key ingredient was the benevolence and wisdom of the people who lent a helping hand along the route.”
In 1990, Simon was working as a human rights lawyer in the West Bank when he was offered a visiting fellowship at Harvard Law School. Once there, he began to consider a career as a law professor and joined the S.J.D. program.
Simon set out to study judicial decision-making in times of national security crises, the subject of his dissertation. He said that as he had studied appellate cases, he admired the ability of judges to arrive at powerfully reasoned decisions after sorting through “heaps of seemingly intractable legal arguments.” But he also found it remarkable that the dissenting judges’ opinions were just as insightful, compelling and well-reasoned.
“‘How could this be?’” Simon recalled asking. “How could judicial reasoning be at once so iron-clad and so open-ended? Were judges being dishonest about their reasons? Were they engaging in self-deception?"
Such questions drove Simon to abandon his initial thesis and enter the unfamiliar world of experimental psychology. Working first with renowned cognitive psychologist Keith Holyoak of UCLA and later with USC Dornsife psychology professor Stephen Read, Simon designed cognitive experiments that yielded results incompatible with prevailing theories of cognition.
“Our findings suggested that the decision-making process flows in both directions: just as the variables determine the decision, the emerging decision pushes backwards and changes the variables so as to bring them to a state of coherence,” Simon said. “We labeled this approach coherence-based reasoning.”
Simon’s work in law and psychology culminated in last summer’s publication of In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process (Harvard University Press, 2012), a book that draws on the psychological literature to reveal how errors of evidence and testimony are inherent in the investigatory and adjudicatory phases of the criminal justice process.
From left: USC Provost Elizabeth Garrett, Prof. Simon
and USC Gould Dean Robert K. Rasmussen
Dean Robert K. Rasmussen told the audience he believed the book will be considered an important landmark in the criminal justice field for decades to come.
“Dan shows that, even if we assume that everyone is acting in good faith, and with the best of intentions, mistakes will be made,” Rasmussen said.
He also noted that, although the book can be a sobering and even upsetting read, Simon offers many recommendations for reform.
“Dan is not simply a critic of the system. He does offer us hope,” Rasmussen said. “He makes real, concrete, specific proposals in a way that we can enhance our criminal justice system to make the promise of our government being fair to all citizens more real.”
USC Provost Elizabeth Garrett, a member of the law school faculty, emphasized the importance of such interdisciplinary work.
“Promoting the contributions of psychology to legal studies can enhance the understanding of both fields,” she said. “Working with colleagues across the university, we more clearly identify problems that are fundamental and at the root of societal challenges, and we are able to develop the most practical solutions.”
-- photos by Mikel Healey
Comprising the law school’s largest-ever concentration of criminal justice expertise, USC Gould faculty analyze pressing issues and approach research, teachings and practice from multiple lenses.
“‘How could this be?’” Simon recalled asking. “How could judicial reasoning be at once so iron-clad and so open-ended? Were judges being dishonest about their reasons? Were they engaging in self-deception?"
Such questions drove Simon to abandon his initial thesis and enter the unfamiliar world of experimental psychology. Working first with renowned cognitive psychologist Keith Holyoak of UCLA and later with USC Dornsife psychology professor Stephen Read, Simon designed cognitive experiments that yielded results incompatible with prevailing theories of cognition.
“Our findings suggested that the decision-making process flows in both directions: just as the variables determine the decision, the emerging decision pushes backwards and changes the variables so as to bring them to a state of coherence,” Simon said. “We labeled this approach coherence-based reasoning.”
Simon’s work in law and psychology culminated in last summer’s publication of In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process (Harvard University Press, 2012), a book that draws on the psychological literature to reveal how errors of evidence and testimony are inherent in the investigatory and adjudicatory phases of the criminal justice process.
“‘How could this be?’” Simon recalled asking. “How could judicial reasoning be at once so iron-clad and so open-ended? Were judges being dishonest about their reasons? Were they engaging in self-deception?"
Such questions drove Simon to abandon his initial thesis and enter the unfamiliar world of experimental psychology. Working first with renowned cognitive psychologist Keith Holyoak of UCLA and later with USC Dornsife psychology professor Stephen Read, Simon designed cognitive experiments that yielded results incompatible with prevailing theories of cognition.
“Our findings suggested that the decision-making process flows in both directions: just as the variables determine the decision, the emerging decision pushes backwards and changes the variables so as to bring them to a state of coherence,” Simon said. “We labeled this approach coherence-based reasoning.”
Simon’s work in law and psychology culminated in last summer’s publication of In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process (Harvard University Press, 2012), a book that draws on the psychological literature to reveal how errors of evidence and testimony are inherent in the investigatory and adjudicatory phases of the criminal justice process.
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