judges in India And Pakistan A new study has found that they are even more lenient towards criminals when they fast during Ramadan.
In particular, the researchers found that for each additional hour of fasting, the number of acquittals increased by 10 percent.
The experts wanted to study a phenomenon known as the “hungry judge effect,” which previous studies have suggested led judges to make tougher decisions.
A new study by researchers at the New Economic School in Moscow examined the impact of fasting during Ramadan on criminal sentencing by judges in Pakistan and India using half a century of data.
They found that instead of being associated with tougher decision making, it was actually more associated with being more forgiving.
‘Hungry Judges Effect’: Justices of the peace in India and Pakistan are more lenient towards criminals when they fast during Ramadan, new study finds (image)
The study analyzed over 372,000 court cases in India and over 5,800 in Pakistan, involving over 7,600 judges in the former and over 900 in the latter.
The researchers looked for a link between fasting intensity — how many hours of fasting lasted per day — and court decisions.
Sultan Mehmood and his colleagues at the New Economic School found that judges who observed Ramadan were more likely to acquit when the intensity of Ramadan fasting increased.
These acquittals were five percent less likely to be challenged and overturned in higher courts.
The researchers also found that for every additional hour of fasting during Ramadan, acquittals increased by 10 percent and appeals decreased by three percent.
“Our sample includes approximately half a million cases and 10,000 judges from Pakistan and India,” the authors write.
“The intensity of the rituals increases the number of justifications of Muslim judges, reduces their appeals and overturns, and does not come at the cost of increased recidivism or increased outgroup bias.
“Overall, our results show that the Ramadan fasting ritual followed by a billion Muslims worldwide leads to more lenient decisions.”
They added: “These results suggest that a religious ritual observed by one billion people worldwide can influence today’s important decisions, and that non-judicial factors should not increase the rigidity of decisions.”
Analysis: The study analyzed over 372,000 court cases in India and over 5,800 in Pakistan, involving over 7,600 judges in the former and over 900 judges in the latter. This graph shows the number of acquittals issued by fasting Muslim judges and non-Muslim judges.
The Hungry Judge Effect is a phenomenon in which judges are supposedly more lenient after a meal, but more severe before a break.
Previous researchlooked at in 2011 decisions of Israeli parole boards.
Parole was found to be 65 percent at the start of the session, but dropped to near zero before lunch break.
“Our results show that court decisions can be influenced by extraneous variables that should have nothing to do with legal decisions,” the researchers say.
New study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.