Professor Wiener received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston and his masters degree in Legal Studies at UNL. He was professor of Psychology at Saint Louis University (1982- 2000) and most recently Chair of the Department of Psychology at Baruch College, City University of New York. In 2002 Dr. Wiener joined the Law-Psychology Program (as Director) and the Social Psychology Program at UNL. He currently serves as the editor of Law and Human Behavior, the official journal of the American Psychology/Law Society (Division 41 of the APA).

Dr. Wiener’s research applies theories of social cognition to problems in legal decision-making. Among the topic areas he has investigated are perceptions of sexual harassment, judgments of medical malpractice, and sociolegal jurisprudence. Currently Dr. Wiener applies dual process models developed in social psychology to explain juror performance in capital murder trials and to understand workers’ evaluations of sexual harassment claims. Other lines of research examine the way in which affirmative action laws influence perceptions of workforce quality, test the distinction between generic and specific prejudice in jury decision-making, test the role of implicit morality judgments in judges’ decisions in child neglect and abuse cases, and examine the role of emotion in judgments made by consumers who have filed bankruptcy. Dr. Wiener teaches courses at UNL on behavioral sciences and the law and legal decision making.

Primary Interests:

Applied Social Psychology
Attitudes and Beliefs
Ethics and Morality
Judgment and Decision Making
Law and Public Policy
Person Perception
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Social Cognition

Applied Social Psychology
Attitudes and Beliefs
Ethics and Morality
Judgment and Decision Making
Law and Public Policy

Person Perception
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Legal Decision Making Research Laboratory
Interactive Map

Journal Articles:

Hurt, L. E., Wiener, R. L., Russell, B. L., & Mannen, R. K. (1999). Gender differences in evaluating social-sexual conduct in the workplace. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 17, 413-433.
Wiener, R. L., (2003). Death penalty research in Nebraska: How do judges and juries reach penalty decisions? Nebraska Law Review, 81, 301-320.
Wiener, R. L., Eton, D., Gibbons, V. P., Goldner, J. A., & Johnson, S. H. (1998). A preliminary analysis of medical futility decision making: Law and professional attitudes. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 16, 497-508.
Wiener, R. L., & Gutek, B. Introduction to advances in sexual harassment research, theory, and policy (1999). In R. Wiener & B. Gutek (Eds.), Advances in Sexual Harassment Research, Theory, and Policy. Special Edition of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 5, 540-556.
Wiener, R. L., Hackney, A., Kadela, K., Rauch, S., Seib, H., Warren, L. ,& Hurt, L. E. (2002). The fit and implementation of sexual harassment law to workplace evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 747-764.
Wiener, R. L., & Hurt, L. E. (2000). How do people evaluate social-sexual conduct: A psycholegal model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 75-85.
Wiener, R. L., & Hurt, L. E. (1999). An interdisciplinary approach to understanding social sexual conduct at work. In R. Wiener & B. Gutek (Eds.), Advances in Sexual Harassment Research, Theory, and Policy. Special Edition of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 5, 556-595.
Wiener, R. L., & Hurt, L. E. (1997). Social sexual conduct at work: How do workers know when it is harassment and when it is not? California Western Law Review, 34, 53-99.
Wiener, R. L., Hurt, L. E., Russell, B., Mannen, K., & Gasper, C. (1997). Perceptions of sexual harassment: The effects of gender, legal standard, and ambivalent sexism. Law and Human Behavior, 24, 71-93.
Wiener, R. L., Hurt, L. E., Thomas, S. L., Sadler, M. S., Bauer, C. A., & Sargent, T. M. (1998). The role of declarative and procedural knowledge in capital murder sentencing. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 124-144.
Wiener, R. L., Richmond, T. L., Seib, H. M., Rauch, S. M., & Hackney, A. A. (2002). The psychology of telling murder stories: Do we think in scripts, exemplars, or prototypes? Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 20, 119-139.
Wiener, R. L., & Stolle, D. P. (1997). Trial consulting: Jurors' and attorneys' perceptions of murder? California Western Law Review, 34, 225-243.

Other Publications:

Wiener, R. L., Rogers, M., Winter, R., Hurt, L. E., Hackney, A., Kadela, K., Seib, H., Rauch, S., Warren, L., & Morasco, B. (2004). Guided jury discretion in capital murder cases: The role of declarative and procedural knowledge. In R. Wiener & C. Haney (Eds.), Psychological Research, Commentary, and Practice and the Death Penalty. Special Edition of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.
Wiener, R. L., Winter, R., Rogers, M., Seib, H., Rauch, S. Kadela, K., Hackney, A., & Warren, L. (2002). Evaluating published research in psychology and law: A gatekeeper analysis of law and human behavior. In J. R. P. Ogloff (Ed.), Taking Psychology and Law into the Twenty First Century (pp. 416- 435). New York: Kluwer/Plenum Publishers.

Courses Taught:

Emotion and Motivation
Introduction to General Psychology
Introduction to Social Psychology
Philosophy of Science
Social Cognition
Social Judgment and Decision Making
Social Science and Law
Statistics and Research Design (graduate level)
Statistics and Research Design (undergraduate level)
Tests and Measurements

Emotion and Motivation
Introduction to General Psychology
Introduction to Social Psychology
Philosophy of Science
Social Cognition
Social Judgment and Decision Making

Social Science and Law
Statistics and Research Design (graduate level)
Statistics and Research Design (undergraduate level)
Tests and Measurements

Richard Wiener
Department of Psychology
338 Burnett Hall
University of Nebraska--Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0308
United States

Phone: (402) 472-1137