Dr. Maria Hartwig received a PhD in psychology from Göteborg University in Sweden in 2005. In January, 2006 she came to John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychology. Her research focuses mainly on the psychology of deception and its detection, interviewing to detect deception and truth, and the social cognitive psychology of guilt and innocence. In this line of research, interpersonal deception and its detection is conceptualized as a game of strategies between suspected liars and lie-catchers. In experimental studies she examines strategies of innocent and guilty suspects to be believed, and the success of these efforts depending on the interview strategies of lie-catchers. The research also seeks normative knowledge: A main line of research focuses on strategies lie-catchers can employ in interviews in order to exploit strategies of guilty people, with the goal of yielding information diagnostic of innocence and guilt. Dr. Hartwig teaches psychology and the law on undergraduate and doctoral levels, with a particular focus on experimental methodology.
