Dan M. Kahan

Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law; Professor of Psychology. Creative and influential scholar of criminal law, evidence, and cognitive psychology. His work has focused on using the tools of decision science to understand and improve the responsiveness of legal and government institutions to scientific data and other valid forms of evidence. A central theme of his work is the influence of cultural cognition, a dynamic that reflects the tendency of individuals unconsciously to fit their perceptions of risks and other policy relevant facts to their group commitments. In empirical studies, Kahan and collaborators have furnished evidence linking cultural cognition to public perceptions of scientific consensus on climate change, nuclear power, and gun control; to intensified cultural polarization on environmental risks among highly science literate members of the public; and to the propensity of juries to impute risk and harm to behavior that offends their moral values. He consistently uses his insights to fashion concrete proposals for legal reform. A notable example includes his advocacy of gentle nudges in the form of non-criminal sanctions to dislodge entrenched norms that motivate decision makers to resist the hard shoves of criminal punishments.