Judge Nudges and Judge Shoves: A Field Experiment on Judicial Recusal

• In Event: New Frontiers in Experimental Design: Conjoint, Field Experiments, and Beyond

Abstract

The Wall Street Journal caused a stir when it published the names of more than 100 federal district judges who took part in cases while owning stock in one of the parties. These recusal failures led to a public outcry and a quick legislative response. We followed up on the Journal reporting with a field experiment to see if academics could nudge judges to recuse more even after they have been shoved by national media and Congress. To this end, we randomly selected half of the federal districts and treated them with a letter informing the judges that we would be keeping an eye on their recusal practices in the wake of the Journal articles. We then compare the rate of recusals in those districts with the control group. We find that our treatment resulted in a causally valid significant increase in recusals.

Authors

• Ben Johnson, University of Florida

• Dane Thorley, Brigham Young University