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• Commitment and consistency: How can we ask jurors to be true to theirword? We can ask them to make a promise, such as to listen to all of theevidence, or to award a verdict that is consistent with the evidence. Wearen’t likely to get much further than that with any judge.• Authority: Who in the courtroom can assert the power to which we wantjurors to defer? The highest the power in the courtroom is supposed toreside with the judge. That is why she sits above everyone else andwears a robe. But power may be shared with, or in some instances, cooptedby others. Jurors will defer to lawyers, clients, and witnesses –particularly expert witnesses – who appear knowledgeable and confident.Confidence is important enough we need to address it separately below.• Liking: How do we get the jury to want to say yes to our client? By beinglikable. Good lawyers know, and teach their clients and witnesses toremember, that the jury is watching constantly, evaluating everyone in thecourtroom with a focus on those who are courteous and show respect forothers. Liking is close to empathy, which will get more attention in a fewpages.• Social proof: How can we get the jury as a group going our client’s way?This is tribalism, pure and simple. During deliberations, if not before,jurors will be looking to the judge, the court staff, the attorneys and parties,and eventually each other for guidance first on how to behaveappropriately in court and then on how to assess the case. No juror islikely to stand up against a consensus view, any more than test subjectswere likely to disagree when everyone else in the room identified a linethat was longer or shorter than the correct answer in the study describedin Section II.A.These six evolutionary principles can help us frame our cases to appeal to jurors’ selfinterest.If you review them once more, you may see they have something in common.29

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