Welcome
Donna Shestowsky
Contact Information
dshest@ucdavis.edu
530-754-5693
Rm. 2135 King Hall
Education
- B.S. Psychology, Yale University
- M.S. Psychology, Yale University
- J.D., Stanford University
- Ph.D. Psychology, Stanford University
In the News
Professor of Law
Donna Shestowsky was awarded a J.D. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University. While at Stanford, she taught courses in legal psychology and established a research lab devoted to the empirical study of juries and dispute resolution processes. During the 2003-2004 academic year she was jointly appointed to the faculty at Northwestern University School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management.
Full Biography...Dr. Shestowsky teaches Criminal Law, Negotiation Strategy, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and a Seminar in Legal Psychology. She also coaches the King Hall Negotiations team, which ranked 1st in the world in the international law student negotiations competition in 2009. She was the 2007 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award. Her legal and psychological commentary has appeared in national sources such as CNN, NPR, and the New York Times. She advises courts in the development of court-connected ADR programs and provides negotiation education services to law firms and members of national organizations such as the Practicing Law Institute.
Dr. Shestowsky’s primary research objective is to examine basic assumptions underlying the structure of the legal system and to explore ways in which the legal system might be improved using the methodological and analytic tools of psychological theory and research. She is currently conducting a national longitudinal study, funded by the National Science Foundation and the American Bar Association, which examines how litigants decide how to resolve their disputes.
... CloseSpecial Interests
Alternative Dispute Resolution, Juries, NegotiationsSelected Career Highlights
- Visiting Assistant Professor, Northwestern University School of Law, 2003-04
- Visiting Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern), 2003-04
- Instructor, Stanford University, Department of Psychology, 2001-2002
Selected Publications
- "That Never Happened": Adults' Discernment of Children's True and False Memory Reports, 36 Law & Hum Behav. 365 (2012).
- Two Social Psychologists’ Reflections on Situationism and the Criminal Justice System, in Ideology, Psychology, and Law (Jon Hanson ed., 2011) (with Lee Ross)
- Disputants' Preferences for Dispute Resolution Procedures: A Longitudinal Pre- versus Post-Experience Study, 41 CONNECTICUT LAW REVIEW 63 (2008) (with Jeanne Brett)
- Disputant's Preferences for Dispute Resolution: Why We Should Care and Why We Know So Little, 23 OHIO STATE JOURNAL ON DISPUTE RESOLUTION 549 (2008)
More Publications...- Misjudging: Implications for Dispute Resolution, 7 NEVADA LAW JOURNAL 487 (2007)
- The Psychological Study of Dispute Resolution Processes, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LAW AND SOCIETY: AMERICAN AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES (David S. Clark ed., 2007)
- The Psychology of Interpersonal Persuasion: Lessons for the Advanced Negotiator, in THE NEGOTIATOR’S FIELDBOOK: THE DESK REFERENCE FOR THE EXPERIENCED NEGOTIATOR 361 (Andrea Kupfer Schneider & Christopher Honeyman eds., 2007)
- Negotiation, Information Technology, and the Problem of the Faceless Other, in NEGOTIATION THEORY AND RESEARCH 145 (Leigh L. Thompson ed., 2006)
- Procedural Preferences in Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Closer, Modern Look at an Old Idea, 10 PSYCHOLOGY, PUBLIC POLICY, AND LAW 211 (2004)
- How the Need for Cognition Scale Predicts Behavior in Mock Jury Deliberations, 28 LAW AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR 305 (2004)
- Improving Summary Jury Trials: Insight from Psychology, 18 OHIO STATE JOURNAL ON DISPUTE RESOLUTION 469 (2003)
- Contemporary Psychology’s Challenges to Legal Theory and Practice, 97 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 108 (2003)
- Profiling the Profilers: A Study of the Trial Consulting Profession, Its Impact on Trial Justice and What, If Anything, To Do About It, 1999 WISCONSIN LAW REVIEW 441
- Where is the Common Knowledge? Empirical Support for Requiring Expert Testimony in Sexual Harassment Trials, 51 STANFORD LAW REVIEW 357 (1999)
- Need for Cognition and Interpersonal Influence: Individual Differences in Impact on Dyadic Decisions, 74 JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 1317 (1998)
