Law360, New York ( November 6, 2014, 11:09 AM EST) -- All people — including potential jurors — are guided by "self-related motives," meaning that a desire to maintain or promote favorable self-images influences their thoughts and actions. These motives significantly impact an individual's ability and willingness to both detect and disclose their bias. This should be extremely troubling to all litigators, as something we depend on during jury selection is prospective jurors' honesty. So faced with a group of complete strangers that have difficulty being honest with themselves, what are we to do? How can we confidently assess whether we should challenge a prospective juror if we cannot reliably gauge their biases? Application of five critical strategies set forth in this article will help you overcome prospective jurors' tendency to "self-enhance," thereby causing them to more freely admit their biases during voir dire....
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