“Walking a Minute in Your Adversary’s Shoes: Addressing the Issue of 'Naïve Realism' at Mediation.”
Atlanta-based partner David Matthews co-authored an article for the Daily Report with clinical psychologist Glenn Hutchison about unconscious biases in legal conflicts. Published on November 26, 2024, the article explored the concept of naïve realism, which comes into play when a person cannot distinguish between the facts and their own ideas about the facts, and how this can be addressed in mediation.
“Long before a dispute arises, the respective parties have spent a great deal of time assimilating information which exclusively supports their respective beliefs,” Matthews and Hutchison said. “If each party engages in an exercise to see things from the other side, even momentarily, this can produce a dramatic effect moving toward compromise.”
Subscribers can access the full article here.
