Laura Smalarz

Laura Smalarz is a psychologist researching psychology as it is related to the law. Smalarz focuses her work on forensic evidence, eyewitness identification, and the wrongfully convicted. She is an associate professor of psychology and director of the psychology and law lab at Arizona State University. She proceeded to receive a PhD in social psychology from Iowa State University in 2015 under the mentorship of both Gary Wells and Stephanie Madon. Majority of her graduate work and published papers are focused eyewitness identification and eyewitness testimony.

Career Freshly out of graduate school, Laura took a position as an assistant professor of psychology at Williams College in Massachusetts where she worked until July 2019. During her time at Williams College, she published a number of papers and journal articles focusing on stereotype bias, eyewitness lineups and identification, memory performance during lineups, and an analysis of Miranda following its 50-year anniversary.

Smalarz is also the director of the Psychology and Law Lab at Arizona State University. Her lab studies all types of eyewitness factors including identification, confidence, and testimony especially in regards to social influence and stereotyping. However, the article published in the Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology regarding the negative implications of racial bias in eyewitness identification is her most cited article to date, with a total of 440 citations as of October 2024. In this specific paper, she was featured as the first author for the first time. memory performance, wrongfully convicted exonerations through the use of DNA, police interrogations, lineups, and mobilization and resistance to name a few. Also during this time, she conducted a 50 year anniversary psychological analysis on Miranda rights which has been cited a number of time.

Throughout her short career at Arizona State University, Laura has been busy publishing a wide range of papers with a primary focus specifically regarding wrongful convictions in relation to eyewitness identification. confidence and reliability, and line ups. In 2023, she published three different papers discussing the effects race and social stereotypes in a legal setting, as well as how race influences wrongful convictions. In 2024, Smalarz has published a paper evaluating the confidence of eyewitness testifiers in their identifications of a suspect who experienced sub-optimal witnessing conditions. She is currently in the process of researching the phenomena of assuming a suspect is guilty when they choose to remain silent. In her article, she discusses how many lineups are conducted with previous bias and a suspect already in mind. In another interview, she emphasizes the import of research and how impactful it can be for not only the students and researchers, but specifically in her case, the wrongfully incarcerated. Smalarz says, "Having research experience can be make-or-break for students who are applying to graduate school. Experience cannot be overstated".