Lerner Lab

Drawing insights from psychology, economics, and neuroscience, Dr. Jennifer Lerner’s research aims to improve decision making in high-stakes contexts and to expand the evidentiary base for designing policies that maximize human health, security, prosperity, and wellbeing. Together with colleagues, Lerner developed a theoretical framework that successfully predicts the effects of specific emotions on specific judgment and choice outcomes. Applied widely, the framework has been especially useful in predicting emotion effects on perceptions of risk, economic decisions, and attributions of responsibility. For example, she and her colleagues discovered and explained why fear and anger – although both negative emotions – exert opposing effects on the perception of risk. In other lines of research, her work aims to improve risk communication and to reduce stress within organizational settings.  Published in leading scientific journals (e.g., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behavior), and collectively cited over 40,000 times in scholarly publications alone, the lab’s research also receives coverage in popular media outlets (e.g., NOVA; the Wall Street Journal; and The New York Times).

Learn more about Dr. Lerner and the Lerner Lab