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Dr. Madon is a professor of social psychology and faculty member in the psychology and law concentration at Iowa State University. Her research examines how social influence processes alter people’s behavior specifically with respect to police interrogation, criminal confessions, and forensic science. Dr. Madon's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, American Psychological Foundation, and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Association for Psychological Science, and Society for Personality and Social Psychology. To visit Dr. Madon's Google Scholar profile, click here. Additional information can be found at the following links:

Dr. Madon is a professor of social psychology and faculty member in the psychology and law concentration at Iowa State University. Her research examines how social influence processes alter people’s behavior specifically with respect to police interrogation, criminal confessions, and forensic science. Dr. Madon's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, American Psychological Foundation, and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Association for Psychological Science, and Society for Personality and Social Psychology. To visit Dr. Madon's Google Scholar profile, click here. Additional information can be found at the following links:

Forensic Science

In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a report that was highly critical of forensic science. One of the academy's main concerns was that most forensic techniques are subjective. Dr. Madon and her colleagues, in conjunction with partnering agencies, are conducting a federally-funded research study that aims to quantify the validity of cartridge case comparisons under realistic, field-based conditions. The goal of this research is to underscore the point that subjectivity and invalidity are not synonymous. That is, even though the forensic analysis of fired cartridge cases relies on human judgment, it can still be a valid technique if the rate of accuracy is high under a variety of conditions that are present in the field.

Selected Publications:

Smalarz, L., Madon, S., Yang, Y., Guyll, M., & Buck, S. (2016). The perfect match: Do criminal stereotypes bias forensic evidence analysis. Law and Human Behavior, 40, 420-429. Link

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