Publications
Academic articles
† denotes equal authorship
Sommers, R.† & Weisburd, K.† (2024). Legally magic words: An empirical study of the accessibility of Fifth Amendment rights. Northwestern University Law Review, 119(3), 637-688. [link] [appendix]
Jordan, J. & Sommers, R. (2024) Sexual assault victims face a penalty for adjacent consent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(34), e2403609121. [link]
Schlund, R., Sommers, R., & Bohns, V. K. (2024) Giving people the words to say no leads them to feel freer to say yes. Scientific Reports. [link]
Sommers, R. & Bohns, V. K. (2023). Consent searches and the underestimation of compliance: Robustness to type of search, consequences of search, and demographic sample. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12375. [link] [pre-print]
Korkmaz, A.,† Mann, T. C.,† Eibelman, J., Sommers, R., & Ferguson, M. J. (2023). Judging guilt: Implicit evaluations of defendants predict verdicts. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506231177328. [link] [pre-print]
Burke, S. E.† & Sommers, R.† (2022). Reducing prejudice through law: Evidence from experimental psychology. University of Chicago Law Review, 89, 1369-1417. [link]
Jordan, J.† & Sommers, R.† (2022). When does moral engagement risk triggering a hypocrisy penalty? Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 101404. [link] [pre-print]
Demaree-Cotton, J.† & Sommers, R.† (2022). Autonomy and the folk concept of valid consent. Cognition, 224, 105065. [link] [pre-print] [JOTWELL]
Sommers, R. (2021). Experimental jurisprudence. Science, 373, 394-395. [link]
Sommers, R. (2021). Contract schemas. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17, 293-308. [link] [pre-print] [JOTWELL]
Nyarko, J., Goel, S., & Sommers, R. (2021). Breaking taboos in fair machine learning: An experimental study. Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO 2021). [link]
Greiner, D. J., Degnan, E. L., Ferriss, T., & Sommers, R. (2021). Using random assignment to measure court accessibility for low-income divorce-seekers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(14). [link]
Sommers, R. (2020). Commonsense consent. Yale Law Journal, 129(8), 2232-2324. [link]
Furth-Matzkin, M.† & Sommers, R.† (2020). Consumer psychology and the problem of fine-print fraud. Stanford Law Review, 72(3), 5o3-560. [link] [JOTWELL]
Sommers, R. & Bohns, V. K. (2019). The voluntariness of voluntary consent: Consent searches and the psychology of compliance. Yale Law Journal, 128(7), 1962-2033. [link]
Jordan, J. J., Sommers, R., Rand, D. G., & Bloom, P. (2017). Why do we hate hypocrites? Evidence for a theory of false signaling. Psychological Science, 28(3), 356-368. [link]
Sommers, R. (2016). Will putting cameras on police reduce polarization? Yale Law Journal, 125(5), 1304-1362. [link]
Sommers, R. (2015). The psychology of punishment and the puzzle of why tortfeasor death defeats liability for punitive damages. Yale Law Journal, 124(4), 1295-1307. [link]
Danis, M., Sommers, R., et al. (2014). Exploring public attitudes toward approaches to discussing costs in the clinical encounter. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 29(2), 1-7. [link]
Sommers, R., Goold, S. D., McGlynn, E. A., Pearson, S. D., & Danis, M. (2013). Focus groups highlight that many patients object to clinicians’ focusing on costs. Health Affairs, 32(2), 338-346. [link]
Sommers, R., & Miller, F. G. (2013). Forgoing debriefing in deceptive research: Is it ever ethical? Ethics & Behavior, 23(2), 98-116. [link]
Schwartz, B., & Sommers, R. (2013). Affective forecasting and well-being. Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Psychology. [link]
Popular Press Articles
New York Times, You were duped into saying yes. Is that still consent?
Boston Globe, Predictions—whether algorithmic or human—may not be fair
New York Times, Would you let the police search your phone?
Behavioral Scientist, The "reasonable" way to respond to being sexually harassed
New York Times, The real problem with hypocrisy