Every now and again courts and arbitral tribunals have to estimate numerical values. It can be something obvious and indeed subject matter of the case like the amount of damages or accrued interest or the number of days if a particular term is an issue. It can be something much more subtle and easier to overlook but still capable of swaying the balance.

It is amazing how very minor tweaks in wording can affect our perception and shift judgement and even memories.

Priming should be used in legal writing to direct the arbitrators' minds in a certain direction surreptitiously. Clever use of vocabulary triggers associations that can to a substantial extent condition how the thinking processes works and to what decision the decision-makers will come.

Clever and apparently innocent manipulations with wordings can be used to produce a strong and enduring shift in a decision-maker’s perception of you case. The same can be applied to the order in which pieces of evidence should be presented.

"What you see is what you get" or "What you get is what you see"? Apparently, when it comes to judgements the latter is more accurate. Our expectations profoundly affect our perception. Not only judgement but perception itself.

Some aspects of Cognitive and Social Psychology have been among best practices in the legal profession in the US for half a century. Others are quickly winning their place in sun and at the same time migrating to other areas of Dispute Resolution including Arbitration.

All humans and even the most sophisticated judges and arbitrators are irrational. What’s more, this irrationality persistently interferes with their decision-making as judges and arbitrators. Further, this irrationality is systematic and predictable. «Aha!» - thought I - «if consciousness is only partially responsible for the decisions judges and arbitrators make, it is as important to win their hearts as to win their minds!»

Almost since the day I began to practice as a Dispute-Resolution lawyer about 10 years ago I had a vague feeling that I was missing something important. I persistently suspected that blackletter law was not everything about Dispute Resolution.