Many recent studies suggest that "ideology" predicts judicial decisionmaking. But the evidence is as consistent with cultural cognition. Recent scholarship in law and political science identifies “ideology" as a major determinant of judicial decisionmaking. This essay suggests the possibility that much if not all the evidence this work rests on might be attributed to the influence of cultural cognition, a set of mechanisms that motivate individuals to conform their factual perceptions to their values. Such an account has the potential to furnish a psychologically richer description of how competing values generate judicial dissensus, a more informed normative appraisal of such dissensus, and a more tractable set of prescriptions for reducing it.

Watch Dan Kahan present the paper at Harvard. 

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