Cornell University next year will accept its first students into a dual Ph.D./J.D. degree program in developmental psychology and law. According to Charles Brainerd, professor of human development at Cornell and the program’s lead creator, it will train the next generation of researchers whose combination of legal and psychological knowledge will advance the movement toward law based on scientific findings. “What I like to tell people is psychology is to law as biology is to medicine,” said Mr. Brainerd. “It’s the basic science that provides information about human memory, reasoning, social effects and so on that the law has to contend with in trying cases and making decisions.”
The program, which plans to admit between five and eight students in the fall, will take six years to complete, shaving two years off the time required to complete the degrees separately. Mr. Brainerd said he expects most of the students to go on to become professors of law or psychology. Students, he said, will also be well-prepared for judicial careers. “A huge advantage lies in the quality of the rulings and decisions that judges are going to make when they come out of this program,” Mr. Brainerd said, noting judges with a psychology background will better understand problems such as the fallibility of eyewitness identification.
