27 October 2025
Can public attention shape justice?
In a forthcoming paper in the American Economic Review: Insights, our colleague Nadine Ketel, together with Olivier Marie (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and Kyra Hanemaaijer (University of Gothenburg), explores how sudden surges in media attention, “salience shocks”, influence judicial decision-making.
Using detailed administrative data from Statistics Netherlands, the authors examine the aftermath of the 2019 assassination of lawyer Derk Wiersum, which drew intense media focus on Moroccan-Dutch individuals. They find that sentencing outcomes became significantly harsher in Dutch criminal courts following this event, suggesting that even in a modern, rule-based justice system, public attention can subconsciously influence judicial outcomes.
Their findings provide rare, data-driven evidence of how cognitive shortcuts may replace impartial reasoning during moments of societal tension.
Read more here: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aeri.20240638