About

Janice Nadler is the Nathaniel L. Nathanson Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Her primary research interests lie at the intersection of law and psychology, focusing on how legal processes influence behavior and judgments. Her work has been published in leading journals such as the Cornell Law Review, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Law & Human Behavior, and Law & Society Review. She has conducted empirical studies on topics including the impact of victim information on criminal responsibility judgments, the influence of law on behavior beyond sanctions, and how communication mediums affect negotiations. Current projects include examining the influence of moral character on criminal blame judgments and exploring public opinion regarding health and environmental risks associated with the food system. Nadler joined Northwestern faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2000 and is also a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation, a prominent research institute dedicated to the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Social Science
• Psychiatry
• Economics
• Environmental health
• Public economics
• Ecology
• Biology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• A Life, Not a Nameless Victim: The Impact of Victim Photographs on Perceptions of Victims and Guilt Judgments

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2026-05-15

  article

  The identifiable victim effect suggests that images of murder victims taken before their deaths can increase positive perceptions of those victims, potentially influencing jurors’ decision-making. We investigated whether viewing pre-mortem photographs of murder victims biased jurors’ perceptions of the victim, and consequently their judgments of the defendant. Across three between-subjects experimental studies (total Ns = 2,456), participants who viewed pre-mortem photographs of the victim (vs. did not view) rated the victim more positively. These more positive perceptions, in turn, predicted a higher likelihood of rendering guilty verdicts. Notably, the effect was stronger for White and Black victims than for Latina victims. These findings suggest that even well-intentioned uses of pre-mortem photographs may inadvertently bias jurors and contribute to racial disparities in the administration of justice.

  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of Victim Photographs on How the Victim is Perceived and Blame

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2026-03-11

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ANIMAL LAW

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Criminal Law, Intuitive Blame, and Moral Character

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-02-20

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Psychology and Jurisprudence across the Curriculum

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-05-17

  book-chapter

  Psychology and law, by their nature, are deeply entwined. Both are about human behavior – understanding it, modifying it, regulating it. Psychology’s research engagement with legal topics enjoys a long history, but until recently has been largely limited to clinical assessment (e.g., capacity, insanity) and police and trial evidence and procedures (e.g., eyewitnesses, jury instructions). The traditional canon of “Psychology & Law” research gained prominence when DNA evidence revealed that many wrongful convictions involved problems foreseen by psychologists. Also, the emergence of “Behavioral Law & Economics” likely provided more legitimacy to law’s engagement with empirical psychology topics and methods, spurring “Law & Psychology” teaching and research in law schools. The expanded range of research can be found across the US law curriculum as illustrated in four main first-year courses – Criminal Law, Torts, Contracts, and Property – and two commonly taken or required courses – Evidence and Professional Responsibility. The current experimental jurisprudence boom has added to the topics and methods used in this research and amplifies the existing trend in which psychology engages more closely with the content and values of law.

  PublisherDOI

• Expressive law and social norms

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2024-08-15 · 2 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• White mock jurors' moral emotional responses to viewing female victim photographs depend on the victim's race.

  Law and Human Behavior · 2023-12-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  OBJECTIVE: Jurors often see both premortem photographs of female murder victims before death and postmortem photographs after death. Postmortem photographs are often probative but might prejudicially heighten jurors' other-condemning emotions, such as anger and disgust. Premortem photographs are often not probative and might prejudicially heighten jurors' other-suffering emotions, such as sympathy and empathy. We examined how victim race changes the impact of pre- and postmortem photographs on participants' moral emotions and, in turn, their verdicts. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that seeing postmortem (vs. no) photographs would increase convictions through other-condemning emotions for White, but not Latina or Black, victims. We also hypothesized that seeing both pre- and postmortem (vs. only postmortem) photographs would further increase convictions through other-suffering emotions, again for White, but not Latina or Black, female victims. METHOD: White participants (N = 1,261) watched a murder trial video. We manipulated the victim's race (White, Black, or Latina) and whether participants saw no victim photographs, premortem photographs of a female victim, postmortem photographs of a female victim, or both pre- and postmortem photographs. Participants reported the emotions they felt during the trial and chose a verdict. RESULTS: Seeing postmortem (vs. no) victim photographs increased White participants' guilty verdicts through other-condemning emotions when the female victim was White or Latina but not when she was Black. Seeing the combination of pre- and postmortem photographs increased White participants' convictions through other-suffering emotions when the victim was a White woman but not when she was Latina or Black. CONCLUSIONS: Attorneys and judges should consider that jurors' emotional reactions to victim photographs are felt selectively depending on the victim's race and could exacerbate racial biases in jurors' judgments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Criminal Law & Psychological Blame

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Assigning Punishment: Reader Responses to Crime News

  Frontiers in Psychology · 2022-02-16

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In this study we test how the composition of crime news articles contributes to reader perceptions of the moral blameworthiness of vehicular homicide offenders. After employing a rigorous process to develop realistic experimental vignettes about vehicular homicide in Minnesota, we deploy a survey to test differential assignments of suggested punishment. We find that readers respond to having very little information by choosing neutral or mid-point levels of punishment, but increase recommended punishment based on information about morally charged conduct. By contrast, information about the perpetrator's immigration status caused respondents to split into two groups on whether the offense deserves neutral or increased punishment. We find that political ideology strongly influences recommendations for more severe punishment when the immigration status of the perpetrator is revealed. We argue that this difference represents a moral dimension to punishment and blameworthiness that incorporates factors outside the active offense and therefore reveals the social influence of differential reporting in shaping public perception.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Interventions to reduce meat consumption by appealing to animal welfare: Meta-analysis and evidence-based recommendations

  2021-04-21 · 6 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Reducing meat consumption may improve human health, curb environmental damage, and limit the large-scale suffering of animals reared in factory farms. Most attention to reducing consumption has focused on restructuring environments where foods are chosen or making health or environmental appeals. However, psychological theory suggests that interventions appealing to animal welfare might operate on distinct, potent pathways. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions. We searched eight academic databases and extensively searched grey literature. We meta-analyzed 100 studies assessing interventions designed to reduce meat consumption or purchase by mentioning or portraying farm animals, that measured behavioral or self-reported outcomes related to meat consumption, purchase, or related intentions, and that had a control condition. The interventions consistently reduced meat consumption, purchase, or related intentions at least in the short term with meaningfully large effects (meta-analytic average risk ratio [RR] = 1.22; 95% CI: [1.13, 1.33]). We estimated that a large majority of true population effects (71%; [95% CI: 58%, 80%]) were stronger than RR=1.1 and that few were in the unintended direction. Via meta-regression, we identified some study and intervention characteristics that were associated with effect size. Risk-of-bias assessments identified both methodological strengths and limitations of this literature; however, results did not differ meaningfully in sensitivity analyses retaining only studies at the lowest risk of bias. Evidence of publication bias was not apparent. In conclusion, animal welfare interventions preliminarily appear effective in these typically short-term studies of primarily self-reported outcomes. Future research should use direct behavioral outcomes that minimize the potential for social desirability bias and are measured over long-term follow-up.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Expressive Law in Mixed Motive Games

  NSF · $85k · 2004–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Richard H. McAdams

  University of Chicago

  21 shared

• Maya B. Mathur

  Stanford University

  16 shared

• Paul Bain

  Boston Public Library

  13 shared

• Thomas N. Robinson

  University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

  11 shared

• Christopher D. Gardner

  Stanford University

  9 shared

• Kenworthey Bilz

  9 shared

• David B. Reichling

  University of California, San Francisco

  9 shared

• Jacob Peacock

  Stanford University

  9 shared

Labs

• Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Faculty & ResearchPI

Awards & honors

• Nathaniel L. Nathanson Professor of Law