Law & Psychology

• Are Six Heads as Good as Twelve?

  Psychologists show how justice is better served by larger juries.

• Demonstrating the Power of Social Situations via a Simulated Prison Experiment

  In 1971, a team of psychologists designed and executed an unusual experiment that used a mock prison setting, with college students role-playing prisoners and guards to test the power of the social situation to determine behavior. The research, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, has become a classic demonstration of situational power to influence individual attitudes, values and behavior. So extreme, swift and unexpected were the transformations of character in many of the participants that this study -- planned to last two-weeks -- had to be terminated by the sixth day.

• Increasing Eyewitness Accuracy in the Lineup Procedure Is All in How You Ask the Question

  Identifying the true criminal from a lineup of suspects is a classic police technique that too often leads to inaccurate arrests and convictions. Psychological research has suggested ways to improve the accuracy and fairness of this technique.

• Obeying and Resisting Malevolent Orders

  Stanley Milgram's famous experiment highlights the powerful human tendency to obey authority.

• Inmate Drug Abuse Treatment Slows Prison’s Revolving Door

  Psychological research shows treating prisoner's drug problems while in and after prison helps keep them off drugs, out of prison and employed.

• Segregation Ruled Unequal, and Therefore Unconstitutional

  Psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark Ph.d demonstrated that segregation harmed Black children's self-images. Their testimony before the Supreme Court contributed to the landmark Supreme Court case that desegregated American public schools: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS.

• The Truth About Lie Detectors (aka Polygraph Tests)

  Most psychologists agree that there is little evidence that polygraph tests can accurately detect lies.

• To Catch a Thief: The Psychology of Fingerprints

  A psychologists' research showing that no two people have the same fingerprints gives law enforcement a highly reliable way to identify people who don't want to be identified.

Tweet