When a decision satisfies someone, more often than not, that person will not be particularly concerned about exactly how the result was reached. For example, if you are applying to law school and are accepted, you will have little interest in finding out which element of your cover letter was decisive in securing you the coveted place. But this is not the case when someone is negatively affected by an unfavourable decision. Cases such as the lawsuit against Harvard University’s admissions process and its alleged discrimination against Asian-American applicants demonstrate just how important the intricacies of an institution’s decision-making process – the factors assessed, their weighting and how they are combined – can become when people feel uncertain, suspicious, cheated or dissatisfied with the outcome.