Willing to accept Primary and Secondary students for Fall 2025
Margaret Bull Kovera received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Minnesota. For over 25 years, she has had continuous federal funding (over $2.8 million) for her research on eyewitness behavior, legal decision-making, and scientific evidence. Her research on these topics has been published in Law and HumanBehavior, Journal of Research on Applied Memory and Cognition, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Applied Cognitive Psychology, and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. She is a Past-President of the American Psychology-Law Society and former Editor-in-Chief of Law and Human Behavior, the premier outlet for scholarship in psychology and law. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS), the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). She is the recipient of the Saleem Shah Award for Early Career Achievement in Psychology and Law (APLS and the American Academy of Forensic Psychology), the Outstanding Teacher and Mentor in Psychology and Law Award (APLS), the APLS Book Award, the Distinguished Teaching Award (John Jay College), and the Distinguished Service Award (SPSSI). She regularly serves as a consultant on change of venue motions and as an expert witness in cases involving eyewitness identification.
Research Topics:
Psychology and Law; Social Psychology of Eyewitness Identification; Jury Decision Making
Current Projects/Research Interests
Eyewitness identification
- Do general social cues encouraging witnesses to make a positive identification magnify suspect bias (NSF-funded, with Ellie Aronson and Jennifer Jones)
- Increasing pre-ID confidence/accuracy relationship (w/ Steve Penrod and Stacie Keck)
- Moderators of eyewitness judgments of perpetrator familiarity and identification accuracy (w/ Steve Penrod and Natalie Tesfamicael)
- Juror evaluations of in-court identifications (AP-LS funded, w/ Jacqueline Katzman, Alexis Hardy, and Ellie Aronson)
- Effect of video recordings on jurors (APLS-funded; w/ Melanie Fessinger and Jennifer Jones)
- Juror sensitivity to variations in evidence-based suspicion prior to an eyewitness identification procedure (w/ Jaleel King, Nicholas Welter, and Jackie Katzman)
- Juror sensitivity to the effects of coercive interrogation techniques in eyewitness interviews (w/ Lexie Hardy)
- Attorney sensitivity to the effects of coercive interrogation techniques in eyewitness interviews (w/ Jason McCarty, Ellie Aronson, and Lexie Hardy)
Plea-bargaining
- Downstream consequences of interrogation techniques (NSF-funded, w/ Melanie Close, Melanie Fessinger, and Jacqueline Katzman)
- Factors that influence suspects’ perceptions of voluntariness of accepting a plea, including the role of plea offer size and offer framing in plea decision making (APLS-funded, w/ Melanie Fessinger)
Racial bias in policing and eyewitness identification
- Evidence-based suspicion and police officer attention to base rates (APLS funded w/ Jacqueline Katzman)
- Does phenotypic bias put innocent suspects at risk of misidentification? (NSF-funded; with Jacqueline Katzman, Jennifer Jones, Melanie Fessinger, Andrew Evelo, and Melanie Close)
Recent Publications
Katzman, J. & Kovera, M.B. (2023). Potential causes of racial disparities in wrongful convictions based on mistaken identifications: Own-race bias and differences in evidence-based suspicion. Law and Human Behavior, 47(1), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000503
Fessinger, M. B., & Kovera, M. B. (2022). From whose perspective? Differences between actors and observers in determining the voluntariness of guilty pleas.Law and Human Behavior, 46(5), 353–371. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000501
Bergold, A. N. & Kovera, M. B. (2022). Diversity’s impact on the quality of jury deliberation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(9), 1406–1420. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211040960
Katzman, J., & Kovera., M. B. (2022). Evidence strength (insufficiently) affects police officers’ decisions to place a suspect in a lineup. Law and Human Behavior, 46(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000476
Perillo, J. T., Perillo, A., Despodova, N. & Kovera, M. B. (2021). Testing the waters? An investigation of the impact of hot tubbing from referral through testimony. Law and Human Behavior, 45(3), 229–242. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000446
Kovera, M. B., & Evelo, A. J. (2021). Diversity will benefit eyewitness science. Journal of Research in Applied Memory and Cognition, 10(3), 363–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2021.04.003
Kovera, M. B., & Evelo, A. J. (2021). Eyewitness identification in its social context. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 10(3), 313–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2021.04.003
Kovera, M. B, & Evelo, A. J. (2020). Improving Eyewitness-Identification Evidence Through Double-Blind Lineup Administration. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(6), 563-568.
Wells, G. L., Kovera, M. B., Douglass, A. B., Brewer, N., Meissner, C. A., & Wixted, J. T. (2020). Policy and procedure recommendations for the collection and preservation of eyewitness identification evidence. Law and Human Behavior, 44(1), 3–36. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000359
Kovera, M. B. (2019). Racial disparities in the criminal justice system: Prevalence, causes, and a search for solutions. Journal of Social Issues, 75, 1139–1164. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/josi.12355
