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Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans
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Cognitive bias in forensic pathology decisions.

Itiel Dror1, Judy Melinek2, Jonathan L Arden3

  • 1University College London (UCL), London, UK.

Journal of Forensic Sciences
|February 20, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Cognitive bias impacts forensic pathologists' decisions in child death cases. Extraneous information, like race, influenced rulings, potentially affecting justice in child homicide investigations.

Keywords:
biascognitive biasconfirmation biascontextual influencedecision-makingexpertiseforensic pathologyforensic sciencestereotypestask-relevance

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Area of Science:

  • Forensic Pathology
  • Medical Law
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Forensic pathologists' determinations of child deaths are crucial for legal proceedings.
  • Cognitive bias may influence the accuracy of these critical decisions.
  • Understanding potential biases is vital for ensuring impartial justice.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the influence of cognitive bias on forensic pathologists' decision-making.
  • To examine whether non-medical information affects manner of death determinations.
  • To assess racial disparities in child death rulings.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 10-year death certificates for children under six in Nevada.
  • An experiment involving 133 forensic pathologists evaluating hypothetical cases.
  • Testing the impact of irrelevant non-medical information (race, caregiver) on rulings.

Main Results:

  • Death certificates showed a higher likelihood of homicide rulings for Black children compared to White children.
  • Experimental data revealed biased decisions when race and caregiver information were introduced.
  • Identical medical information led to different conclusions based on extraneous details.

Conclusions:

  • Cognitive bias, influenced by extraneous factors like race, significantly affects forensic pathology decisions.
  • This bias can perpetuate disparities in how child deaths are classified.
  • Ensuring impartiality requires addressing and mitigating cognitive biases in forensic evaluations.