The effect of hungry judges: Magistrates in India and Pakistan are more lenient with criminals when they fast during Ramadan, study finds
- Study looked at observational data from more than 370,000 cases and 8,500 judges
- It turned out that judges observing Ramadan were more likely to acquit while fasting
Judges in India and Pakistan are more lenient with criminals when they are fasting during Ramadan, a new study finds.
Specifically, researchers found that with each additional hour of fasting, the number of acquittals increased by 10 percent.
Experts wanted to investigate a phenomenon known as the “hungry judge effect,” which previous research had suggested judges made tougher decisions.
The new study, by researchers at the New Economic School in Moscow, examined how fasting during Ramadan had an effect on criminal sentencing decisions by judges in Pakistan and India using half a century of data.
They found that instead of being linked to tougher decision-making, it was in fact more associated with greater clemency.
The ‘hungry judges effect’: Magistrates in India and Pakistan are more lenient with criminals if they fast during Ramadan, a new study finds (stock image)
The study analyzed more than 372,000 court cases in India and more than 5,800 in Pakistan, involving more than 7,600 judges in the former and more than 900 in the latter.
The researchers looked for connections between the intensity of fasting – how many hours fasting lasted in a day – and court rulings.
Sultan Mehmood and colleagues at the New Economic School found that judges observing Ramadan were more likely to acquit when the intensity of fasting during Ramadan increased.
These acquittals were five percent less likely to be appealed and reversed in higher courts.
The researchers also found that with each additional hour of fasting, the number of acquittals increased by 10 percent and the number of appeals during Ramadan decreased by 3 percent.
“Our sample includes about half a million cases and 10,000 judges from Pakistan and India,” the authors wrote.
Ritual intensity increases the acquittal rate of Muslim judges, lowers their appeals and reversal rates, and does not come at the cost of more recidivism or increased outgroup bias.
“Overall, our results indicate that the Ramadan fasting ritual, followed by one billion Muslims worldwide, leads to more lenient decisions.”
They added: ‘These results provide evidence that a religious ritual observed by a billion people around the world can influence contemporary decisions at stake and that extrajudicial factors need not influence the harshness of decisions. to increase.’
Analysis: The study analyzed more than 372,000 court cases in India and more than 5,800 in Pakistan, involving more than 7,600 judges in the former and more than 900 in the latter. This graph shows the number of acquittals overseen by fasting Muslim judges and non-Muslim judges
The hungry judge effect is a phenomenon in which judges are supposedly more lenient after a meal, but stricter before intermission.
An earlier studyin 2011, looked at the decisions of Israeli probation boards.
It found that the parole award was 65 percent at the start of a session, but would drop to almost zero before a meal break.
“Our findings suggest that court rulings may be influenced by external variables that should not affect legal decisions,” the researchers said.
The new study is published in the journal Nature human behavior.
