Rob MacCoun

Rob MacCoun is Professor of Law and Professor (by courtesy) in Psychology, and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute. From 1993 to 2014 he was a professor of public policy and law at UC Berkeley, and from 1986 to 1993 he was a behavioral scientist at RAND. He uses a mix of experimental and non-experimental empirical research as well as computational modeling and simulation to address questions at the intersection of psychology, law, and public policy. His book Drug War Heresies (with Peter Reuter), is considered a landmark scholarly analysis of the drug legalization debate, and his analyses of unit cohesion were influential in the 1993 and 2010 policy debates about allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the US military. He also has an active program of research on bias in the use and interpretation of research by scientists, journalists, and citizens.