Tunnel vision and falsification in legal decision-making

The importance of studying legal decision-making has been demonstrated by miscarriages of justice, where a piece of problematic evidence often receives a lot of attention. Nevertheless, there is often also evidence for the suspect’s innocence that was ignored. The cognitive process that can cause such evidence to be ignored is known as tunnel vision. Tunnel vision starts with a belief in something, such as the belief that the suspect is the perpetrator of the crime he or she is charged with. When presented with information that contradicts the belief, an uneasy feeling, known as cognitive dissonance, arises and to avoid that negative feeling, the initial belief should be maintained, and consonance should be achieved. In the current chapter, theories on legal decision-making will be explained, and attention will be drawn to the danger of tunnel vision and potential remedies in the form of falsification and the consideration of alternative scenarios. As the chapter is mostly based on the inquisitorial system of the Netherlands, a Dutch legal case will be used to demonstrate how attempts at falsification can be overlooked when deciding on whether a defendant is guilty or not.