Social & moral psychology
I study how people explain harm, assign responsibility, and decide what is fair—and bring those insights to questions that matter beyond the lab.
Based in Ithaca, New York
01 / Selected scholarship
Experimental research at the intersection of social psychology, cognitive science, and the psychology of language.
All publications on Google ScholarExperiments examining the emotional effects of having one’s knowledge dismissed, and how experiences of discrimination relate to those responses.
Read abstractEight preregistered studies investigating how personal values and relationships influence explanations for moral violations.
Read abstractA psycholinguistic approach to studying how moral values relate to the causes people infer when reading about harmful events.
Read abstractResearch on moral values, linguistic focus, and the attribution of responsibility to people who have been harmed.
Read abstract02 / Research in practice
Legal decisions depend on how people understand evidence, evaluate credibility, and reason about responsibility.
As a jury consultant at Magna Legal Services, I bring psychological research and experimental methods to the study of those decisions.
My work at MagnaMock trials, focus groups, and juror interviews help reveal how people interpret a case, where they disagree, and what changes their minds.
Research informs the development of concise narratives, useful visuals, and questions that test understanding without assuming the answer.
Causation, fault, credibility, and damages require attention to both the evidence and the assumptions people bring to it.
03 / A little about me
Social psychology, cognitive science, philosophy, and public life.
I’m Laura Niemi, a social psychologist interested in how people make sense of one another—and what those judgments mean for the world we share.
I am an Assistant Research Professor in Cornell University’s Department of Psychology, director of the Applied Moral Psychology Lab, and a jury consultant at Magna Legal Services.
My Ph.D. is from Boston College. I completed postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and Duke, and previously held a faculty position at the University of Toronto’s Munk School. My teaching at Cornell has included The Psychology of Good and Evil and Moral Psychology in Action.
I also serve as Co-Director and Vice President of the International Society for Moral Psychology, bringing together scholarship across disciplines and perspectives.
04 / In conversation
A few places to begin exploring the ideas beyond the journal article.
05 / Connect
For research collaborations, speaking, media, or questions about my work, please get in touch.
Academic · Research · Speaking
ln279@cornell.eduLitigation consulting · Magna Legal Services
lniemi@magnals.com