Dr. Salerno and the lab over the years!
Dr. Jessica M. Salerno
Lab Director
Jessica M. Salerno is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. She is a founding member of the ASU Program on Law and Behavioral Science and a Fellow of the Society for Experimental Psychology and the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Middlebury College in 2003 and her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2012.
Dr. Salerno’s research interests include several lines of inquiry that apply social psychological theory and experimentation to legal contexts. Dr. Salerno's work has been published in empirical journals and has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Justice, the American Psychology-Law Society, the American Bar Foundation, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She serves on the editorial board for Law and Human Behavior and Psychology, Public Policy, & Law. She has won several research awards, including the Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, the New College for Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Outstanding Research Award and the American Psychology-Law Society's Saleem Shah Early Career Award.
Dr. Salerno is also a trial consultant and serves as an expert witness on a variety of topics, including juror decision making, cognitive biases, disturbing emotional evidence, factors leading to wrongful convictions, and 911 Call Analysis.
To learn about Dr. Salerno's research download her CV HERE.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Associate Member of the Law Faculty
Cornell University
jessica.salerno@cornell.edu
Casey Lewry is a postdoctoral researcher working with Jessica Salerno and Nick Schweitzer at Cornell. Her research examines how people decide who is responsible for an outcome, highlighting distinctions between moral responsibility ("who is morally to blame?") and causal responsibility ("what sequence of events led to this?"), as well as retrospective responsibility ("why did this happen?") and prospective responsibility ("what should be done going forward?").
You can reach Casey at clewry@cornell.edu
Click here to view her CV.
Vincenzo (Vinny) is a postdoctoral associate working in the Social Psychology and Law Lab at Cornell. His research uses a social cognitive approach to investigate mechanisms underlying intergroup processes, primarily police-community relations. A central focus of his work is how people perceive and response to physical threats. For example, he has found that people automatically evaluate police officers as sources of physical threat, and that these evaluations motivate defensive responses to officers.
You can reach Vinny at vjo8@cornell.edu
Click here to view his CV.
Megan Lawrence is a fourth-year PhD student in Psychology. Her research primarily examines behavioral factors and psychological mechanisms that generate suspicion in the early stages of criminal investigations, often in the context of 911 calls. She has also contributed to published work across a range of topics at the intersection of psychology and law, including juror bias, the effectiveness and perceptions of anti-bias court interventions, and how individuals are perceived based on their Miranda decision-making.
You can reach Megan at: mll295@cornell.edu
Click here to view her CV.
Megan Lawrence
PhD Canidate
Rose Eerdmans is a third-year doctoral student in psychology at Cornell University. Her research is focused on understanding and addressing racial disparities and discrimination in the United States legal system. Currently, she is conducting research on the mechanisms and manifestations of racial bias correction and disclosure in legal contexts, with the ultimate goal of developing interventions to reduce the impact of racial bias on legal outcomes.
You can reach Rose at: ree49@cornell.edu
Click here to view her CV.
Rose Eerdmans
PhD Student
Kristen Gittings is a 3rd-year PhD student in the Psychology program. Her research interests are broadly related to understanding the impact of intersectional factors (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation) on juror decision-making. She is also interested in investigating perceptions of victims and victimhood. Currently, Kristen is working on several projects that study how role-based and stereotypic expectations impact the different ways that women are evaluated in the legal system.
You can reach Kristen at: kg595@cornell.edu
Click here to view her CV.
Kristen Gittings
PhD Student
Research Assistants
Rhiannon Gnerer
(Lab Manager)
Eli Berman
(Lab Manager)
Adrianna Redmond
Adara Homer
Alanna Dorelien
Alex Blue-Baron
Alexandra Hoopman
Alina Husain
Annalisa Abbate
Ash Dagam
Athena Rhee
Brittany Walker
Coco Ren
Claire Springer
Finley Allen
Hannah Weir
Joanna Mu
Hilary Kuang
Joshua Cohen
Kaysi Crook
Leianna Leong
Kristiana Klein
Marla Zacks
Maya Rothbard
Olivia Buvanova
Riley Kramer
Rohith Tsundupalli
Romina Azarm
Ruth Flood
Sinai Malpica Orea
Sofia Principe
Sophia Lesokhin
Not Pictured: Alexis Adams
Tina Azarm
Zachary Weiner
Veronika Oie Liivak