Judges’ emotion: an application of the emotion regulation process model

Abstract

Courtrooms are often emotionally charged atmospheres where parties have a vested interest in the proceedings and their outcomes. Judges are exposed to a wide range of emotions and stressors in the course of their work. Though the ideal of a dispassionate judge persists, more empirical work is needed to identify how judges regulate their own emotional experience in court. Using Maroney and Gross typology of emotion regulation strategies, this study explored the self-reported use and preference of these strategies among a sample of U.S. judges. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we found that judges reported using a variety of intrinsic (self-directed) and extrinsic (directed toward others) emotion regulation strategies, though judges reported using some strategies such as suppression more frequently than others. We also found that many of the strategies judges described matched a subset of the strategies described by Maroney and Gross supporting their typology.

Key words:

• court
• demeanor
• emotion
• emotion regulation
• emotion work
• emotional labor
• judge
• judicial dispassion
• law

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The National Judicial College for technical support with this research.

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Katie M. Snider has declared no conflicts of interest

Paul G. Devereux has declared no conflicts of interest

Monica K. Miller has declared no conflicts of interest

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Nevada, Reno Institutional Review Board (IRB), and ethical standards comparable to the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments, comprising the ethical principles described in the Belmont Report, and federal requirements under the U.S. Revised Common Rule (U.S. 45 CFR part 46).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study