Whenjobsare meaningless...

The focus today is on grabbing a bigger share of existing wealth than on producing value |

Guilty! When lunchtime rolls around, so does the probability of a less favourable courtroom decision for the accused. A study, originally of parole board hearings and more recently of bench trials, has revealed that verdicts are influenced by seemingly irrelevant things, like whether or not the judge has recently eaten. According to the findings, a person is anywhere between two and six times more likely to receive leniency early in the day, or just after lunch or a break, than they are at other times.

The further away the judge or jury are from a snack, the lower the defendant’s odds of getting off the hook.

I’ve always hoped that justice is blind. The law should be applied without fear or favour, with only cold reason and the facts of the case determining what happens to the accused.

I want to believe that a judge’s rulings are solely based on rational decisions and written laws, but they are not. As the study revealed, even judges, who are thought to be impartial decisionmakers in the pursuit of justice, are subject to the same quirks, biases and imperfections that affect the rest of us. What’s more, they don’t realise it.

Though judges are well aware of their own actions, the chances are, they have no idea that their rulings are following a meal pattern.

It is the number of cases he has heard since his last break, not the number of hours he has been sitting, that affect a judge’s mood. As hunger strikes, decision fatigue sets in and is exacerbated as his blood sugar lowers. For all of us, decision making is mentally draining and, if forced to keep deciding things, we get tired and often opt for the least taxing answer — and in the case of a judge, it appears that “guilty” is the easier verdict.

Out of the courtroom, this kind of “hunger hypothesis” may explain why you shift from “yes” to “no” and “approve” to “deny”— though when it comes to leadership, I would argue that it’s easier to say “yes”. Whichever way the pendulum swings, when decision fatigue begins to take hold, it is the way you carry out your judgement that matters.

Leading is effectively the execution of judgement; your role is to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions. Every day, you’re making judgements that shape all of your decisions: That person is a bad driver, a lousy planner, a crummy cook.

That kind of binary judgement isn’t nice, and when you are a manager it can dramatically impact someone’s career and livelihood. Think about it, you make hiring decisions based on judgement, and you use the same judgement to decide on a career promotion or a raise. It comes into play with everything: Which strategy should we chase? Which product should we build? How do we solve that problem?

As the study of judicial decisions reveals, blood sugar changes and decision fatigue unleash our biases. So, when food cravings kick in, you need to suspend your judgement because the verdict you pass may be flawed. Don’t let an empty stomach become a breeding ground for opinions, ideas, and biases that could cloud your judgement. Take a break and replenish yourself so you can reset your mental energy. At the end of the day, justice may be blind, but it still gets hungry.