Over Confidence Can Kill!

My husband is known as an “aggressive driver” who, being impatient, takes unnecessary risks in his driving. When I mention these attributes to him, he retorts that he has yet to have an accident after all of these decades. In sum, like many of us, he is over confident in [Read More]

By |April 20th, 2018|Bias|

Random Thoughts

Recently (as part of a book club), I read The Psychology of Conflict by Raul Randolph (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London 2016) who is a barrister and mediator. His approach is to use existentialism as the vehicle through which to discuss the psychological aspects of mediation.  Although some participants of mediation [Read More]

By |September 23rd, 2016|Research|

Appearances Really Do Matter!

We have all heard that how we appear matters: that people judge us by our appearance without even realizing it. People will look at our faces and based on what they perceive unconsciously, will decide whether we are trustworthy. A recent study confirms this link between appearance and trustworthiness. In [Read More]

By |September 4th, 2015|Research|

Thinking outside the Box

My dog Cookie loves to play catch (or more aptly, I throw the ball and she chases it!). Shortly after we got her, one of my neighbors told us that on one side of the Mormon Church (2 blocks away) was a great grassy side yard, more or less fenced [Read More]

By |April 4th, 2014|Odd stuff|

“The Lunch Date”

A few weeks ago, I participated in a panel at the California State Bar Convention discussing the "Ethical Duties of Eliminating Bias in the Legal Profession." While the topic sounds dry, our discussion was not. Even though our presentation was at 8:00 am on a Sunday morning, the audience became [Read More]

By |November 1st, 2013|Odd stuff|

Assumptions: Why Cookie Eats Grass

After putting Argus down last October due to spleen cancer, we got a new dog- Cookie - who just turned three. Needless to say, after having a senior citizen dog, it is quite a change to be taking care of a young dog again.Unlike our other dogs, Cookie loves to [Read More]

By |October 11th, 2013|Negotiation|

Assumptions

As a mediator, I am trained not to assume, and to ask questions. Sometimes, when I am acting as me (and not as a mediator), that training goes out the window; sometimes, it does not. Sometimes, I catch myself in time and reinforce a valuable lesson: never assume. How did [Read More]

By |March 2nd, 2012|Odd stuff|
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