Tess Neal is an Assistant Professor in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, Social & Behavioral Sciences Division at Arizona State University. She is both a researcher and a licensed psychologist (State of Arizona #4630 and State of Nebraska #844). She obtained her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at The University of Alabama in 2012 and completed a clinical-forensic postdoctoral residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School from 2012-2013, followed by a National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center from 2013-2015.

Her research interests focus on human inference and decision making. The core questions motivating her research are, “How do people reason with and integrate information to make inferences and judgments?” and “What affects people’s ability to do this well?” She studies these basic science questions in applied settings (e.g., the legal system, scientific healthcare and mental health systems, government, enterprise). She has published approximately two dozen peer-reviewed publications in such journals as Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Behavioral Sciences and the Law, and Criminal Justice and Behavior.