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Original Article

An Examination of Circadian Impacts on Judgments

Published Online:July 09, 2020https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000420

Abstract

Abstract. Many people suffer from insufficient sleep and the adverse effects of sleep deprivation are well documented. Research has shown that people’s judgments can be affected by circadian timing. Across three studies, we examined the impact of time-of-day on people’s judgments about hypothetical legal scenarios, hypothesizing that participants responding at a suboptimal time of day (3–5 a.m.) would give higher guilt ratings and be less sensitive to case information (e.g., evidence strength) than participants responding at a more optimal time of day (2–4 p.m.). Although the time-of-day manipulation influenced participants’ self-reported alertness levels, time-of-day did not affect guilt judgments or sensitivity to case information. This research adds to the literature on how extraneous factors may and may not impact probability assessments.

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