The author would be most likely to consider which one of the following to be an accurate description of the effects o...

on November 8, 2019

Hello @manvir,

The problem with B is that we are not given the opinions of many judges. We do not really know how the judges themselves perceive rules of recusal and disqualification. We have to stick to the author's analysis of the situation.

Make sure you return to the passage, and confirm which effects the author has specifically discussed. See line 22: "Focusing on appearances may cause sources of actual bias that are not apparent to outside observers, or even to judges themselves, to be overlooked." What is the effect given here? It is possible for a biased judge to stay on the case.

Another effect is implied. The discussion of the "appearance of bias" suggests to me that even a truly unbiased judge will recuse when there is an appearance of bias.

Therefore, what do we know from the passage? Sometimes unbiased judges recuse themselves, and sometimes a judge's bias will go unnoticed. This matches E, which is the correct answer.

However, we don't know the frequency at which these effects occur. This is why I was able to eliminate C and D.

Alison on September 18, 2020

Are you suggesting that in this instance we must infer that some judges may be wrongly recused on the appearance of bias even though they are not actually biased?