Adam Benforado’s principal interest is in applying insights from the mind sciences—most notably embodied cognition, moral psychology and implicit social cognition—to law and legal theory. He is particularly focused on issues arising in corporate law, contract law and criminal law. Conducting novel experiments and developing existing findings, Professor Benforado’s research is focused on uncovering how our legal system may reflect unappreciated aspects of our cognitive frameworks and processes, and, as a consequence, how the law may fail to align with our purported values and fall short of meeting our needs. Professor Benforado received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and was a Frank Knox Fellow and Visiting Scholar with the Cambridge University Faculty of Law. He clerked for Judge Judith Rogers on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Professor Benforado also worked at Jenner & Block, LLP in Washington, D.C., where he handled trial and appellate litigation matters. His recent scholarly work includes three chapters in "Ideology, Psychology, and Law," Oxford University Press (2012) and a forthcoming article in Topics in Cognitive Science. He is also working on a book, "Unfair: How Our Hidden Minds Lead to Injustice," to be published by Crown. His articles have appeared in the Emory Law Journal (four articles), Maryland Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Cardozo Law Review, Oregon Law Review, Florida State University Law Review, St. Louis University Law Journal and Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal. Professor Benforado's op-eds, essays and letters have appeared in a variety of publications including the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, Providence Journal, Baltimore Sun, Houston Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Legal Times and Boston Review. He is also a contributor to "The Situationist," the blog of the Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School.
Articles
Color Commentators of the Bench, Florida State University Law Review (2011)
Featuring prominently in the last four sets of Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the judge-as-umpire analogy...
Frames of Injustice: The Bias We Overlook, Indiana Law Journal (2010)
The Cultural Cognition Project (CCP) at Yale Law School and the Project on Law and...
Quick on the Draw: Implicit Bias and the Second Amendment, Oregon Law Review (2010)
African Americans face a significant and menacing threat, but it is not the one that...
The Body of the Mind: Embodied Cognition, Law, and Justice, St. Louis University Law Journal (2010)
Recent research from embodied cognition strongly contests the dualist notion of the mind as distinct...
The Geography of Criminal Law, Cardoza Law Review (2010)
When Westerners explain the causes of actions or outcomes in the criminal law context, they...