Philosophy:Judgement

Judgement (or judgment) is the evaluation of given circumstances to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. In an informal context, a judgement is opinion expressed as fact. In logic, judgements assert the truth of statements. In the context of a legal trial, a judgement is a final finding, statement or ruling, based on evidence, rules and precedents, called adjudication (see Judgment (law)). In the context of psychology, judgment informally references the quality of a person's cognitive faculties and adjudicational capabilities, typically called wisdom. In formal psychology, judgement and decision making (JDM) is a cognitive process by which individuals reason, make decisions, and form opinions and beliefs.

Psychology

In cognitive psychology (and related fields like experimental philosophy, social psychology, behavioral economics, or experimental economics), judgement is part of a set of cognitive processes by which individuals reason, make decisions, and form beliefs and opinions (collectively, judgement and decision making, abbreviated JDM). This involves evaluating information, weighing evidence, making choices, and coming to conclusions. Judgements are often influenced by cognitive biases, heuristics, prior experience, social context, abilities (e.g., numeracy, probabilistic thinking), and psychological traits (e.g., tendency toward analytical reasoning). In research, the Society for Judgment and Decision Making is an international academic society dedicated to the topic; they publish the peer-reviewed journal Judgment and Decision Making.

Further reading

• Wanga, Zheng (2014). "Context effects produced by question orders reveal quantum nature of human judgments". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111 (26): 9431–9436. doi:10.1073/pnas.1407756111. PMID 24979797. Bibcode: 2014PNAS..111.9431W.