Michael J Saks
Biographic Data
| ID | 266207 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael J Saks |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael J |
| FAMILY NAME | Saks |
| SIGNATURE | SAKS M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5824-6711 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Don’t blink
s youth was that the journal was publishing some of the earliest studies of a variety of phenomena and addressing topics still new to psychology-law: broad inquiries about law through psychological lenses, court processes, clinical forensics, eyewitnesses, experts and their knowledge, jury-relevant research; other justice system decision making. I conclude with a discussion of editorial due process and some lessons of an infamous editorial. (Psyc…
Capital and punishment: Resource scarcity increases endorsement of the death penalty
Improving Judge & Jury Evaluation of Scientific Evidence
The role of the expert witness in trials is a paradox. Judges and jurors need help with matters beyond their understanding, and judges are expected to act as gatekeepers to ensure that jurors are not fooled by misleading expert testimony. Yet, as gatekeepers, judges might not effectively distinguish sound from unsound expert testimony. As factfinders, judges and jurors both might have difficulty comprehending expert evidence, intelligently resolv…
Methodological triangulation
Science, technology, or the expert witness: What influences jurors’ judgments about forensic science testimony
Neuroimages as evidence in a mens rea defense: No impact
Recent developments in the neuropsychology of criminal behavior have given rise to concerns that neuroimaging evidence (such as MRI and functional MRI [fMRI] images) could unduly influence jurors. Across four experiments, a nationally representative sample of 1,476 jury-eligible participants evaluated written summaries of criminal cases in which expert testimony was presented in support of a mental disorder as exculpatory. The evidence varied in …
The gatekeeper effect: The impact of judges' admissibility decisions on the persuasiveness of expert testimony
In a pair of mock-trial studies of a possible “gatekeeper” effect, our participants were presented with a summary of a trial that included a piece of expert scientific evidence. The judge’s decision was manipulated to admit the scientific evidence, as well as the quality of the evidence and the credibility of the expert. Participants were found to be less critical of and more persuaded by expert evidence when it was presented within a trial, comp…
Failed Forensics: How Forensic Science Lost Its Way and How It Might Yet Find It
A group of nonscience forensic sciences has developed over the past century. These are fields within the broader forensic sciences that have little or no basis in actual science. They are not applications of established basic sciences, they have not systematically tested their own hypotheses, and they make unsupported assumptions and exaggerated claims. This review explains the nature and origins of those nonscience forensic fields, which include…
Expert Evidence After Daubert
Daubert stands for a trilogy of Supreme Court cases as well as revisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Together they represent American law's most recent effort to filter expert evidence offered at trial. This review begins by placing the Daubert trilogy in the context of earlier judicial efforts to solve the screening problem, which began well before the twentieth century, and then provides a brief explication of evidence law under Daubert. …
Instructing jurors on general damages in personal injury cases: Problems and possibilities
Instructing jurors on general damages in personal injury cases: Problems and possibilities
Introduction to Mini‐Symposium on Contingency Legal Practice: Tort Lawyers and Their Plaintiffs
The role of research in implementing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
The role of research in implementing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
Justice Improved: The Unrecognized Benefits of Aggregation and Sampling in the Trial of Mass Torts
Uncovering the Secrets of the Common Law
Legal secrets” are secrets that the law of torts or contracts either require to be—or protect from being—divulged. The secrets themselves are without limit: a professor's past as a former priest, things learned while in a previous job, that a house has running water only twelve hours each day, that land was worth more than its owner realized, that a patient told his psychotherapist that he planned to kill his girlfriend, that the Treaty of Ghent …
Legal policy analysis and evaluation
A census of subject pool characteristics and policies
Legal policy analysis and evaluation
Do Two- and Three-Year-Old Children Have Cognitive Styles
This article describes an experimental attempt to detect differences in the cognitive styles of two-to-three-year-old children. It was demonstrated that even such young children have quite distinct behavioral styles. It was found that their cognitive styles differ in terms of whether a synthetic style or an analytic style predominates. Methods for evaluating these indices are indicated
Psychologists as law professors
Psychologists as law professors
The Use-Nonuse-Misuse of Applied Social Research in the Courts
Human Information Processing and Adjudication: Trial by Heuristics
This article addresses the role of quantitative evidence and methods in trials. Major arguments against the introduction of explicit computation information are considered and contrasted with findings about the characteristics of the unaided human decision maker. Emphasis is given to behavioral decision theory and the heuristic biases it reveals. Consideration is given to the symbolic versus "truth-finding" functions of trials, mathematical model…
Social Psychology in Court
Human Information Processing and Adjudication: Trial by Heuristics
This article addresses the role of quantitative evidence and methods in trials. Major arguments against the introduction of explicit computation information are considered and contrasted with findings about the characteristics of the unaided human decision maker. Emphasis is given to behavioral decision theory and the heuristic biases it reveals. Consideration is given to the symbolic versus "truth-finding" functions of trials, mathematical model…
An integration theory analysis of jurors' presumptions of guilt or innocence
Failed Forensics: How Forensic Science Lost Its Way and How It Might Yet Find It
A group of nonscience forensic sciences has developed over the past century. These are fields within the broader forensic sciences that have little or no basis in actual science. They are not applications of established basic sciences, they have not systematically tested their own hypotheses, and they make unsupported assumptions and exaggerated claims. This review explains the nature and origins of those nonscience forensic fields, which include…
Expert Evidence After Daubert
Daubert stands for a trilogy of Supreme Court cases as well as revisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Together they represent American law's most recent effort to filter expert evidence offered at trial. This review begins by placing the Daubert trilogy in the context of earlier judicial efforts to solve the screening problem, which began well before the twentieth century, and then provides a brief explication of evidence law under Daubert. …
Neuroimages as evidence in a mens rea defense: No impact
Recent developments in the neuropsychology of criminal behavior have given rise to concerns that neuroimaging evidence (such as MRI and functional MRI [fMRI] images) could unduly influence jurors. Across four experiments, a nationally representative sample of 1,476 jury-eligible participants evaluated written summaries of criminal cases in which expert testimony was presented in support of a mental disorder as exculpatory. The evidence varied in …
Improving Judge & Jury Evaluation of Scientific Evidence
The role of the expert witness in trials is a paradox. Judges and jurors need help with matters beyond their understanding, and judges are expected to act as gatekeepers to ensure that jurors are not fooled by misleading expert testimony. Yet, as gatekeepers, judges might not effectively distinguish sound from unsound expert testimony. As factfinders, judges and jurors both might have difficulty comprehending expert evidence, intelligently resolv…
The gatekeeper effect: The impact of judges' admissibility decisions on the persuasiveness of expert testimony
In a pair of mock-trial studies of a possible “gatekeeper” effect, our participants were presented with a summary of a trial that included a piece of expert scientific evidence. The judge’s decision was manipulated to admit the scientific evidence, as well as the quality of the evidence and the credibility of the expert. Participants were found to be less critical of and more persuaded by expert evidence when it was presented within a trial, comp…
Instructing jurors on general damages in personal injury cases: Problems and possibilities
Persuasion, surveillance, and voting behavior
Methodological triangulation
Science, technology, or the expert witness: What influences jurors’ judgments about forensic science testimony
Justice Improved: The Unrecognized Benefits of Aggregation and Sampling in the Trial of Mass Torts
Anonymity in Letters to the Editor
Journal Article ANONYMITY IN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Get access MICHAEL J. SAKS, MICHAEL J. SAKS University Fellow, Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar THOMAS M. OSTROM THOMAS M. OSTROM Professor Department of Psychology, Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 37, Issue 3, FALL 1973, Pages 417–422, http…
"On Meredith Crawford's "Military psychology
"On Meredith Crawford's "Military psychology
Anonymity in Letters to the Editor
Journal Article ANONYMITY IN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Get access MICHAEL J. SAKS, MICHAEL J. SAKS University Fellow, Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar THOMAS M. OSTROM THOMAS M. OSTROM Professor Department of Psychology, Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 37, Issue 3, FALL 1973, Pages 417–422, http…
Persuasion, surveillance, and voting behavior
The exorcist
Social psychological contributions to a legislative subcommittee on organ and tissue transplants
Social psychological contributions to a legislative subcommittee on organ and tissue transplants
Jury Verdicts: The Role of Group Size and Social Decision Rule
An integration theory analysis of jurors' presumptions of guilt or innocence
Social Psychology in Court
The Use-Nonuse-Misuse of Applied Social Research in the Courts
Human Information Processing and Adjudication: Trial by Heuristics
This article addresses the role of quantitative evidence and methods in trials. Major arguments against the introduction of explicit computation information are considered and contrasted with findings about the characteristics of the unaided human decision maker. Emphasis is given to behavioral decision theory and the heuristic biases it reveals. Consideration is given to the symbolic versus "truth-finding" functions of trials, mathematical model…
Psychologists as law professors
Psychologists as law professors
Do Two- and Three-Year-Old Children Have Cognitive Styles
This article describes an experimental attempt to detect differences in the cognitive styles of two-to-three-year-old children. It was demonstrated that even such young children have quite distinct behavioral styles. It was found that their cognitive styles differ in terms of whether a synthetic style or an analytic style predominates. Methods for evaluating these indices are indicated
Legal policy analysis and evaluation
A census of subject pool characteristics and policies
Legal policy analysis and evaluation
Uncovering the Secrets of the Common Law
Legal secrets” are secrets that the law of torts or contracts either require to be—or protect from being—divulged. The secrets themselves are without limit: a professor's past as a former priest, things learned while in a previous job, that a house has running water only twelve hours each day, that land was worth more than its owner realized, that a patient told his psychotherapist that he planned to kill his girlfriend, that the Treaty of Ghent …
Justice Improved: The Unrecognized Benefits of Aggregation and Sampling in the Trial of Mass Torts
The role of research in implementing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
The role of research in implementing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
Introduction to Mini‐Symposium on Contingency Legal Practice: Tort Lawyers and Their Plaintiffs
Instructing jurors on general damages in personal injury cases: Problems and possibilities
Instructing jurors on general damages in personal injury cases: Problems and possibilities
Expert Evidence After Daubert
Daubert stands for a trilogy of Supreme Court cases as well as revisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Together they represent American law's most recent effort to filter expert evidence offered at trial. This review begins by placing the Daubert trilogy in the context of earlier judicial efforts to solve the screening problem, which began well before the twentieth century, and then provides a brief explication of evidence law under Daubert. …
Psychology (26 works) · Political science (25 works) · Law (19 works) · Law (13 works) · Jury Decision Making Processes (11 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Criminology (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems (6 works)