Cognition, Motivation, and Supreme Court Decision Making

40 Pages Posted: 3 Aug 2009 Last revised: 27 Sep 2010

See all articles by Justin Wedeking

Justin Wedeking

University of Kentucky - Department of Political Science

Date Written: September 16, 2010

Abstract

Most scholars admit that cognition and motivation are important for understanding decision making. Yet, few incorporate them when examining institutional actors. In this paper, I ask how do cognition and motivation shape judicial decision making? I propose a theory of a justice’s cognitive reasoning style that accounts for the complexity of thought and argue that it shapes the degree that ideology influences votes conditionally based upon the motivational basis of the opinion and author’s group status (majority vs. minority). I use content analysis data from Supreme Court opinions spanning 25 terms to test hypotheses within this framework. I find that when majority opinions exhibit a complex reasoning style, ideology’s influence on voting is attenuated, but not for dissenters. Moreover, this paper illustrates how motivation dramatically shapes how cognition influences the ideology-vote relationship, demonstrating that it can either enhance ideology’s influence or negate its influence altogether.

Keywords: integrative complexity, cognition, motivation, cognitive complexity, content analysis, Supreme Court decision making, ideology, reasoning, bottom-up, top-down

Suggested Citation

Wedeking, Justin, Cognition, Motivation, and Supreme Court Decision Making (September 16, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1443264 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1443264

Justin Wedeking (Contact Author)

University of Kentucky - Department of Political Science ( email )

1615 Patterson Office Tower
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
United States

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