ABSTRACT
Psychology and the law, the study of the impacts of the law on humans and of humans on the law, has inspired social change with both positive and negative consequences. Many early psychologists promoted eugenics, the selective breeding of humans, ostensibly to improve human intelligence and other traits. These scholars promoted legal change with state eugenics boards and forced sterilisation, largely of individuals who were not White, were immigrants, or who had low intelligence test scores. This belief of inherent, biological differences provided support for segregation, an important legal topic throughout the history of the United States. Just as some psychologists contributed to the racially divided educational system, others responded with an infusion of more positive change. For example, in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) renowned psychologists, including Mamie Phipps Clark, Kenneth Clark, and Isidor Chein, among others, challenged racial segregation in schools. Psychological scholars have also prompted social change in the legal system through their applied research, including the study of factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitnesses and of best practices for police who interview potential eyewitnesses. Another applied research area inspiring social change is the study of interrogation and confession, which has revealed several distinct factors that affect the likelihood of false confessions. Across these and other areas of basic and applied scholarship, psychology and the law have consistently inspired social change, often for the better.
