Jennifer Lerner

Professor of Public Policy and Management
Center for Public Leadership
Office Address
Taubman-150
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 124
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Phone: 617-495-9962
Email: Jennifer_Lerner@ksg.harvard.edu
Jennifer Lerner

Profile

Dr. Jennifer Lerner is Professor of Public Policy andManagement at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as well as Director ofthe Harvard Laboratory for Decision Science. This inter-disciplinary laboratory,which she co-founded with two economists, draws primarily on psychology,economics, and neuroscience to study human judgment and decision-making.

Lerner pursues two primary research interests within thefield of Decision Science: (1) emotionand (2) accountability. Her emotionresearch examines how human feelings influence outcomes involving riskperception, every day economic transactions, and legal judgments. For example, she has discovered that fear andanger have opposing effects on risk estimates, fear increasing and angerdecreasing estimates. The insightsgained from this work have implications not only for understanding how thebrain works but also for understanding how public officials communicate risk,the latter represented in NATOs use of Lerners work. The second topic, accountability, examines howauthority relationships shape judgment and choice outcomes. For example, she and her colleagues havedeveloped a model that predicts when accountability will improve judgment, whenit will have no effect on judgment, and when it will make matters only worse. Thiswork has implications for the design of both public and privateinstitutions. Lerners teaching revolvesaround the same set of topics within Decision Science, including classes forundergraduate, graduate, and executive students.Professor Lerner publishes her research widely in scientific journals -- summariesof which appear in popular print (e.g., TheNew York Times) and broadcast media (e.g., Good Morning America). She also serves on the editorial boards forthe Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Journal of Behavioral Decision Research. She has received several awards for herresearch, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists andEngineers (PECASE). In a White House ceremony, the National Science Foundationand the President of the United States annually award the PECASE as the highestnational honor for investigators in the early stages of promising researchcareers.

Professor Lerner joined the faculty at Harvard and receivedtenure as a full professor in 2007.Prior to Harvard, she was the McCandless Associate Professor in theDepartment of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Her graduate-level training includes an M.A.and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, aswell as a postdoctoral fellowship in affect and psychoneuroimmunology atUCLA. Taken together, awards from theNational Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have nearlycontinuously funded her training and research.

Courses

Fall

  • MLD-307 Trust, Emotion, Ethics, and Morality in Negotiation and Decision Making

Not Offered

  • MLD-311 Emotion and Decision Making Research Laboratory
  • MLD-312 Emotion and Decision Making Research Laboratory

Media Expertise

Jennifer Lerner welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

Additional experts may be found by clicking on each subject listed. You may contact faculty directly or if you need assistance contact the Communications Office at 617-495-1115.