Margaret Bull Kovera, PhD

Margaret Bull Kovera, PhD

Willing to accept Primary and Secondary students for Fall 2025

[email protected]

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
Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)
  • The effects of database size on the probative value of FRT matches (w/ Jaleel King and Amanda Bergold)
  • Context effects on police use of information provided by FRT (w/ Amanda Bergold)
  • Whether knowledge that suspect was generated using FRT affects witness (w/ Jessica Ferguson and Jaleel King) and juror decisions (w/Jaleel King)
Plea-bargaining
  • Downstream consequences of interrogation techniques (NSF-funded, w/ Melanie Close, Melanie Fessinger, and Jacqueline Katzman)
  • The effects of coercive interrogation techniques in eyewitness interviews on defense attorney’s perceptions on plea deals (w/ Jason Carty, Ellie Aronson, and Lexie Hardy)
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

Bergold., A. N., & Kovera, M. B. (in press). The contribution of facial recognition technology to wrongful arrests and trauma. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.

Aronson, E., & Kovera, M. B. (in press). Social influence in legal processes and decision-making. In R. Prislin (Ed.), Research handbook on social influence. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Levett, L. M., & Kovera, M. B. (in press). Jury decision making. In P. A. Zapf & Sivasubramaniam, D. (Eds.), APA Handbook of forensic psychology, Vol. 2: Criminal investigation, adjudication, and sentencing outcomes (2nd Ed.). American Psychological Association.

Katzman, J., & Kovera, M. B. (2024). Suspect race affects defense attorney evaluations of pre-identification evidence. Law and Human Behavior. Advance online publication. https://doi-org.ez.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/10.1037/lhb0000566

Jones, J. M., Katzman, J., & Kovera, M. B. (2024). Phenotypic mismatch between suspects and fillers but not phenotypic bias increases eyewitness identifications of Black suspects. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1233782. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1233782.

Kovera, M. B. (2024). The role of suspect development practices in eyewitness identification accuracy and racial disparities in wrongful conviction. Social Issues and Policy Review, 18, 125–147. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12102

Katzman, J., & Kovera, M. B. (2024). Police decisions involved in collecting eyewitness identification evidence. In M. K. Miller, L. A. Yelderman, M. T. Huss, & J. A. Cantone (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of psychology and legal decision-making (pp. 117–128). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/978/1009119375.008

Fessinger, M. B., & Kovera, M. B. (2023). An offer you cannot refuse: Plea offer size affects innocent but not guilty defendants’ perceptions of voluntariness. Law and Human Behavior, 47(6), 619-633. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000548

Kovera, M. B., & Aronson, E. (2023). Eyewitness identification. In B. Fox & E. Verona (Eds.), Handbook of evidence-based criminal justice practices. Routledge.

Kovera, M. B., & Fessinger, M. B. (2023). Prosecutorial misconduct. In D. DeMatteo & K. Scherr (Eds.)., The Oxford handbook of psychology and law (pp. 692–708). Oxford University Press.

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

Current Students

Alexis Hardy

Jennifer M. Jones

Ellie Aronson

Stacie Keck

Natalie Tesfamicael-square

Natalie Tesfamicael

Jaleel King

Lillian Phillips

Jay Carty