For more than a decade, I have had continuous funding from the National Science Foundation for my research on jury decision-making and eyewitness identification. Specifically, I conduct research on legal decision making about scientific evidence and the social psychology of voir dire and jury selection. My research in the area of eyewitness identification has focused on the influence of single-blind lineup administration on rates of mistaken identifications.

I am a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), and the American Psychology-Law Society. I received the 1994 APLS Dissertation Award, the 2000 Saleem Shah Award for Early Career Achievement in Psychology and Law and the 2004 Outstanding Teacher and Mentor Award, all from the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association). I am a past-President of APLS and am the Secretary/Treasurer of SPSSI. I also serve as the Associate Editor of the journal, Law and Human Behavior.

Primary Interests:

Attitudes and Beliefs
Law and Public Policy
Persuasion, Social Influence
Social Cognition

Attitudes and Beliefs
Law and Public Policy

Persuasion, Social Influence
Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Legal Decision Making and Witness Behavior Laboratory
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Books:

Journal Articles:

Cass, S. A., Levett, L. M., & Kovera, M. B. (2009). The effects of harassment severity and organizational behavior on damage awards in a hostile work environment sexual harassment case. Behavioral Sciences and the Law.
Crocker, C. B., & Kovera, M. B. (2009). The effects of rehabilitative voir dire on juror bias and decision making. Law and Human Behavior.
Cutler, B. L., & Kovera, M. B. (2008). Introduction to commentaries on the Illinois field study of lineup reforms. Law and Human Behavior, 32, 1-2.
Greathouse, S. M., & Kovera, M. B. (2009). Instruction bias and lineup presentation moderate the effects of administrator knowledge on eyewitness identification. Law and Human Behavior, 33, 70-82.
Levett, L. M., & Kovera, M. B. (2009). Psychological mediators of the effects of opposing expert testimony on juror decisions. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 15, 124-148.
Levett, L. M., & Kovera, M. B. (2008). The effectiveness of educating jurors about unreliable expert evidence using an opposing witness. Law and Human Behavior, 32, 363-374.
McAuliff, B. D., & Kovera, M. B. (2008). Juror need for cognition and sensitivity to methodological flaws in expert evidence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 385-408.
McAuliff, B. D., & Kovera, M. B. (2007). Estimating the effects of misleading information on witness accuracy: Can experts tell jurors something they don’t already know? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 849-870.
McAuliff, B. D., Kovera, M. B., & Nunez, G. (2009). Can jurors recognize missing control groups, confounds, and experimenter bias in psychological science? Law and Human Behavior, 33, 247-257.
Mitchell, T., & Kovera, M. B. (2006). The Americans with Disabilities Act: What is a reasonable accommodation? Law and Human Behavior, 30, 733-748.
Russano, M. B., Dickinson, J. J., Greathouse, S. M., & Kovera, M. B. (2006). “Why don’t you take another look at number three?” Investigator knowledge and its effects on eyewitness confidence and identification decisions. Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics Journal, 4, 355-379.

Other Publications:

Kovera, M. B. (2007). Implications of automatic and controlled processes in stereotyping for hate crime perpetration and litigation. In R. L. Wiener, B. Bornstein, R. Schopp, & S. Willborn (Eds.), Social consciousness in legal decision making: Psychological perspectives (pp. 227-246). New York: Springer.
Kovera, M. B., & Borgida, E. (2010). Social psychology and law. In S. T. Fiske, D. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kovera, M. B., & Greathouse, S. M. (2008). Pretrial publicity: Effects, remedies and judicial knowledge. In E. Borgida and S. T. Fiske (Eds.), Beyond common sense: Psychological science in the courtroom (pp. 261-280). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Courses Taught:

Attitudes and Social Behavior
Experimental Social Psychology
General Psychology
Introduction to Social Psychology
Legal Psychology
Proseminar in Social Psychology
Psychology of Juries

Attitudes and Social Behavior
Experimental Social Psychology
General Psychology
Introduction to Social Psychology

Legal Psychology
Proseminar in Social Psychology
Psychology of Juries

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Margaret Bull Kovera
Department of Psychology
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
445 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
United States

Phone: (212) 484-1112
Fax: (212) 237-8930