Comment by Out_of_Characte
2 years ago
I think the question is whether bodily discomfort affects cognition, probaly yes, and how large is that effect size. Could that effect be enough to change a ruling in a significant way? I personally dont think so. In my experience with driving, cognitive distraction has a much higher effect than most bodily discomfort.
I think it's domain dependent the effect of body on cognition, but definitely vastly affects. Could be, no disparagement, a present paucity of self-awareness regarding the correlation of these states.
In terms of whether that's large enough for a ruling, I guess it'd depend on all the pertinent factors: the rule, the judge, the context, the level and nature of discomfort, and the definition of significant. Within that multid space, I think, contrary to you, there's ample chance to produce large effects.
Mitigating this is perhaps how similar many judges routines are. What might really be strong support would be some control, and putting some jurists on more extreme diets/routines hahaah! :) Of course, only in mock trials tho, as otherwise that would be unethical.