Tom Tyler
  • Affiliated Research Professor
Joint Appointment
Macklin Fleming Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Founding Director of The Justice Collaboratory, Yale Law School
Education
M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
B.A. in Psychology, Columbia University

Tom R. Tyler

  • Affiliated Research Professor
ABF Researcher

Tom R. Tyler (he/him) is the Macklin Fleming Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School and a Founding Director of The Justice Collaboratory. He is also a Professor (by courtesy) at the Yale School of Management. He was previously a University Professor at New York University, where he taught in both the Psychology Department and the Law School. Prior to joining New York University, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Northwestern University.

Professor Tyler’s research explores the role of justice in shaping people’s relationships with groups, organizations, communities, and societies. In particular, he examines the role of judgments about the justice or injustice of group procedures in shaping legitimacy, compliance, and cooperation. He is the author of several books, including Why People Cooperate (Princeton University Press, 2011), Legitimacy and Criminal Justice (Russell Sage Foundation, 2007), Why People Obey the Law (Princeton University Press, 2006), Trust in the Law (Russell Sage Foundation, 2002), and Cooperation in Groups (Routledge, 2000). He was awarded the Harry Kalven prize for “paradigm shifting scholarship in the study of law and society” by the Law and Society Association in 2000, and, in 2012, he was honored by the International Society for Justice Research with its Lifetime Achievement Award for innovative research on social justice.

Research Focus

Criminal justice reform, social science and institutional design, law and psychology