Judges aren't just born biased—they 'catch' it from their colleagues or from seeing social unrest early in their careers.
Tracking judges in India revealed that bias is contagious; working with biased colleagues can reduce acquittal rates for minority groups for over a year. However, the study also found a 'cure': the religious bias typically triggered by experiencing a riot is completely neutralized if the judge works on a diverse team with colleagues of different religions during the same period.
The Lifecycle of Judicial Bias
SSRN · 6323098
How does judicial bias arise and persist in the legal system? We trace the lifecycle of judicial bias in India's criminal courts, leveraging the quasi-random assignment of judges to courts and cases. We first document substantial variation in bias: within the same court, assigning a same-religion defendant from a judge at the 25th to 75th percentile of bias increases acquittal probability by 7.5 percentage points, 45% of the mean acquittal rate. We then examine how different triggers across judg