My research is concerned with authority dynamics within organized groups. In particular, I have studied the role judgments about the fairness of outcomes and the justice of procedures play in shaping people's reactions to decisions made by authorities. My work demonstrates that the legitimacy of authorities is strongly linked to judgments about their fairness. More recently I have been concerned with understanding why people care about their treatment by others, and have examined that issue in a variety of organizational contexts. I have also studied the implications of diversity and multiculturalism for the operation of rule and authority systems in organizations.

Primary Interests:

Attitudes and Beliefs
Culture and Ethnicity
Group Processes
Judgment and Decision Making
Organizational Behavior
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Social Cognition

Attitudes and Beliefs
Culture and Ethnicity
Group Processes
Judgment and Decision Making

Organizational Behavior
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Tyler Laboratory
Interactive Map

Books:

Kramer, R., & Tyler, T. R. (Eds). (1996). Trust in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Tyler, T. R. (2006). Why people obey the law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tyler, T. R., Boeckmann, R., Smith, H. J., & Huo, Y. J. (1997). Social justice in a diverse society. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Journal Articles:

Huo, Y. J., Smith, H. J., Tyler, T. R., & Lind, E. A. (1996). Superordinate identification, subgroup identification, and justice concerns: Is separatism the problem, is assimilation the answer? Psychological Science, 7, 40-45.
Tyler, T. R., Degoey, P., & Smith, H. J. (1996). Understanding why the justice of group procedures matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 913-930.

Other Publications:

Tyler, T. R., & Smith, H. J. (1997). Social justice and social movements. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske and G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tyler, T. R., Smith, H. J., & Huo, Y. J. (1996). Member diversity and leadership effectiveness: Procedural justice, social identity, and organizational dynamics. In B. Markovskky, M. Lovaglia and R. Simon (Eds.), Advances in Group Processes (Vol. 13, pp. 33-66).

Tom Tyler
Department of Psychology
New York University
6 Washington Place
New York, NY 10003
United States

Phone: (212) 998-7816
Fax: (212) 995-4826