#55 - Risk Salience and Unconscious Bias in Decision Making, with Hilary Evans Cameron

Hilary Evans Cameron is an Assistant Professor at Ryerson Law. Prior to become a faculty member, Hilary represented refugee claimants for a decade. She is the author of Refugee Law’s Fact-finding Crisis: Truth, Risk, and the Wrong Mistake. Her paper on risk salience in refugee decisions that we discuss can be found here. She is also the creator of www.meetgary.ca, a website which provides guidance to both decision makers and asylum claimants on the implicit biases and thought processes that can influence decision makers. She provides training to the Immigration and Refugee Board on this topic. 3:00The two strong pulls in the law of how a decision maker should make a decision in a refugee hearing that impacts risk salience. 7:00Can a decision maker ever be truly neutral? 11:00Does the fact that the refugee process starts with a removal order “set things up” for strict scrutiny? Plus how politicians can influence error preference. 18:30Refugee acceptance rates have increased recently. Is this a result of new decision makers or the same decision makers applying different maxims. Can someone’s risk salience approach change over time? 22:00The non legal things that can influence decision makers. 26:30Studies on accuracy in credibility and how risk salience follows. 30:00Should decision makers make their biases explicit? 36:30What is the fear that people have of refugee claimants? 43:01The illusion of transparency. “The idea that truth will shine through.” 44:30The myth that a memory is like a video recording. 46:00The myth that a refugee claimant will never take unnecessary risks. 47:15The myth of once a liar always a liar.48:80The maxim of the perfect applicant. 52:00The maxim of “our expectations were clear.” 1:01The inconsistency between standards in refugee law and trauma theory. 1:04Hillary’s working with the IRB1:15Have any IRB members told Hillary that who the representative is can impact how they view the claim? 1:21When should you admit a past lie?

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