Psychological Scientist

Dr Julia Shaw is an honorary research associate at University College London.


Academic background

Before joining UCL, Dr Shaw worked as senior lecturer and course director for Criminology at London South Bank University from 2015-2017, lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire from 2013-2015, and before this she taught courses on Forensic Psychology in Canada at the University of British Columbia and the University of Waterloo.

She completed her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of British Columbia in 2013. Before obtaining her Ph.D., she gained a B.A. from Simon Fraser University in Canada, and an M.Sc. (cum laude) from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. In 2022 she also completed a master's degree in Queer History at Goldsmith’s University.


Research

She has published research articles in academic journals, has written textbook chapters, and has presented at international conferences.

She has also written a number of articles for the BBC and Scientific American.

Click here for the full version of her most cited article: "Constructing Rich False Memories of Committing Crime".

For the sample code of conduct for psychology and law events, as referred to in Shaw and Geven (2020), click here.

Journal Articles

Click for access to full articles.

Elphick, C., Minhas, R., & Shaw, J. (2023, under review). Everybody knows: Barriers and incentives to reporting witnessed workplace harassment. Work and Occupations. (pre-print)

Minhas, R., Elphick, C. & Shaw, J. (2021). Protecting Victim and Witness Statement: Examining the Effectiveness of a Chatbot that Uses Artificial Intelligence and a Cognitive Interview. AI & Society. 37(1), 265-281.

Engelberg, J., Lawton, S. & Shaw, J. (2021). The Futile Search for ‘Physiological Evidence’ of Male Bisexuality: A Response to Jabbour et al. Psychology of Sexualities Review,12(2).

Shaw, J. (2020). Do False Memories Look Real? Evidence that People Struggle to Identify Rich False Memories of Committing Crime and Other Emotional Events. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(650), 1-7. Online-only direct link here.

Shaw, J. & Vredeveldt, A. (2019). The recovered memory debate continues in Europe: Evidence from the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(1), 27-28.

Shaw, J. (2018). How can researchers tell whether someone has a false memory? Coding strategies in autobiographical false memory research. A reply to Wade, Garry, and Pezdek. Psychological Science, 29(3), 477-480.

Chaplin, C. & Shaw, J. (2016). Confidently wrong: Police endorsement of psycho-legal misconceptions. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 31(3), 208-216.

Shaw, J. & Wafler, M. (2016). Tipping the scales: How defendant body type may result in eyewitness biases. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 23(5), 676-683.

Shaw, J. (2015). Research in Brief: Remembering crimes that never happened. The Police Chief, 82, 16–17.

Shaw, J. & Porter, S. (2015). Constructing rich false memories of committing crime. Psychological Science, 26(3), 291-301.

Shaw, J., Crosby, K., & Porter, S. (2014). The impact of a video game on criminal thinking: Implicit and explicit measures. Simulation and Gaming, 45(6), 786-804.

Shaw, J., Öhman, L., & van Koppen, P. (2013). Psychology and law: The past, present, and future of the discipline. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 19, 643-647.

Shaw, J., & Woodworth, M. (2013). Are the misinformed more punitive? Beliefs and misconceptions in forensic psychology. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 19, 687-706.

Shaw, J., Porter, S., & ten Brinke, L. (2013). Catching Liars: Training mental health and legal professionals to detect high-stakes lies. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 24(2), 145-159.

Korva, N., Porter, S., O’Connor, B., Shaw, J., & ten Brinke, L (2012). Dangerous decisions: Influence of juror and defendant appearance on legal decision-making. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 20, 384-398.

Smeets, T., Giesbrecht, T., Raymaekers, E., Shaw, J., & Merckelbach, H. (2010). Autobiographical integration of trauma memories and repressive coping predict post-traumatic stress symptoms in undergraduate students. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 17(3), 211-218.

Books

Shaw, J. (2022). Bi: The hidden culture, history, and science of bisexuality.

Shaw, J. (2019). Making Evil: The Science behind humanity's dark side.

Shaw, J. (2016). The Memory Illusion: Why you may not be who you think you are.

Book chapters & Other

Shaw, J. & Geven, L. (2020). Expansion of Psychology and Law in Europe and the Importance of Diversity and Inclusion: A Practical Guide for Lasting Change. Liber Amicorum Peter van Koppen. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Boom Publishers. For the sample code of conduct for psychology and law events and organisations click here.

Shaw, J., Elphick, C., & Minhas, R. (2019). Witnessing workplace harassment and discrimination. Overcoming the ‘social contagion’ of toxic work culture [White Paper].

Shaw, J.. (2017). Understanding false memories: Dominant scientific theories and explanatory mechanisms. Psychology, Crime, and Law [invited chapter].

Porter, S., & Shaw, J. (2013). Roles and responsibilities of forensic psychologists. In S. Porter & L. Wrightsman (Eds.), Psychology and law (Canadian ed.). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley and Sons.

Shaw, J., & Porter, S. (2013). Psychopathy. In S. Porter & L. Wrightsman (Eds.), Psychology and Law (Canadian ed.). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley and Sons.

Shaw, J., & Porter, S. (2012). Forever a psychopath? Psychopathy and the criminal career trajectory. In H. Häkkänen-Nyholm & J. Nyholm (Eds.), Psychopathy and law. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley and Sons.

ACADEMIC Conference presentations

Shaw, J. (2020). Do false memories look real? Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Virtual Conference.

Shaw, J., Minhas, R., & Shaw (2019). Spot On: A harassment reporting chatbot that protects evidence using artificial intelligence and a cognitive interview. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Santiago, Spain.

Elphick, C., Minhas, R. & Shaw, J. (2018). Dark Figures: A systematic review of research on the reporting of workplace harassment. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Turku, Finland.

Shaw, J. (2017). When is the issue of false memory raised in historical child sexual abuse allegations? An archival study of British cases. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Mechelen, Belgium.

Shaw, J. (2015). Generer des souvenirs faux complex de crime commis. Paper presentation at the first Société Française de Psychologie Juridique joint meeting with the European Association of Psychology and Law. Paris, France.

Jones, C. & Shaw, J. (2015). Using EEG to detect Eyewitness Deception. Poster presentation at the first meeting of the Cambridge University deception conference Decepticon, Cambridge, UK.

Shaw, J. (2015). Can technology help us spot a false memory? A linguistic analysis of rich false memories of committing crime. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Nuremberg, Germany.

Shaw, J. (2015). True or false memory? Evidence that naïve observers have difficulty identifying false memories of emotional events, especially for audio-only accounts. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Research on Memory and Cognition, Victoria, Canada.

Shaw, J. (2015). When the innocent remember committing crime. Invited keynote presentation at the annual meeting of the False Memory Research Group, London, UK

Shaw, J. & Chaplin (2015). Even police officers get it wrong: Police endorsement of, and confidence in, psycho-legal misconceptions. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, San Diego, USA.

Shaw, J. (2014). False memories, real consequences: Can false memories of past criminal behaviour influence future behaviour? Paper presentation at the annual conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Shaw, J. (2014). False memories look real: Generating and evaluating rich false memories of committing crime. Paper presentation at the annual International Conference of Investigative Psychology, London, UK.

Shaw, J., & Rabbit, S., Crosby, K., & Porter, S. (2013). Do false memories look real? Observer accuracy when classifying rich false memories of criminal and emotional events. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Coventry, UK.

Shaw, J., & Porter, S. (2013). Constructing rich false memories of committing crime. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, Portland, USA.

Shaw, J., & Wafler, M. (2012). The muscle effect: How body type biases lineup identifications.Paper presentation at the annual conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Nicosia, Cyprus.

Shaw, J., Crosby, K., & Porter, S. (2012). The grand theft auto effect: Playing violent video games makes us feel like a criminal. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Shaw, J., Porter, S, & ten Brinke, L. (2011). Deception detection for professionals: Improving mental health professionals' ability to detect high-stakes lies. Paper presentation at the annual congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH), Berlin, Germany.

Shaw, J., Porter, S, & ten Brinke, L. (2011). Training mental health and legal professionals to detect extremely high-stakes lies. Paper presentation at the International Joint Psychology and Law Conference, Miami, USA.
Shaw, J., & Porter, S. (2010). 

Deception detection for professionals. Invited workshop presented at the annual conference of the Australia and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law, Surfer’s Paradise, Australia.

Shaw, J. (2010). Correcting misconceptions in forensic psychology: Proposing the psycho-legal beliefs questionnaire. Paper presentation at the annual conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Shaw, J., & Hart, S. (2009). International rehabilitation programs and recidivism. Paper presentation at the annual conference of the American Psychology-Law Society, San Antonio, USA.

Shaw, J., & Hart, S. (2008). Once a criminal, always a criminal? A statistical comparison of international rehabilitation programs and recidivism. Paper presentation at the annual conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Maastricht, Netherlands.