Department of Philosophy

ONLINE JOINT SEMINAR
The University of Hong Kong
Lingnan University
National University of Singapore

Daniel J. Singer
University of Pennsylvania

Modelling the Epistemic Effects of Diversity in Juries

Zoom link:
https://hku.zoom.us/j/92448586439?pwd=amJPTmpReUdzYkZCbXFhUnFwcms3Zz09

Authors:
Patrick Grim and Daniel J. Singer, Aaron Bramson, Bennett Holman, Jiin Jung, and William J. Berger

Abstract:
Many factors contribute to whether juries reach right verdicts, but directly empirically studying the effect of these factors in jury deliberation is difficult for conceptual, practical, and ethical reasons. Agent-based models avoid these difficulties. In this talk, I’ll discuss our group’s work on the role of diversity in epistemically successful jury verdicts. In that work, we outline four importantly different roles that diversity can play in affecting jury verdicts. We show that where different subgroups have access to different information, equal representation can strengthen epistemic jury success, and if one subgroup has better access to particularly strong evidence, epistemic success may demand participation by that group. Diversity can also reduce the redundancy of the information on which a jury focuses, which can play a positive role. Finally, and surprisingly, we show that limiting communication between diverse groups in juries can favor epistemic success as well. At the end of the talk, I’ll reflect briefly on the potential upshots of the epistemic benefits of limited communication between groups.

For inquiries:
Nathaniel Sharadin
sharadin@hku.hk