Tess Wilkinson-Ryan L'05
Professor of Law and Psychology

Tess Wilkinson-Ryan studies the psychology of legal decision-making. Her research addresses the role of moral judgment in legal decision making, with a particular focus on private contracts and negotiations.
Expertise
- Contracts
- Behavioral Economics
- Social Science and the Law
Articles and Book Chapters
The Perverse Consequences of Disclosing Standard Terms, 103 CORNELL L. REV. 117 (2017).
Incentives to Breach, 17 AM. L. & ECON. REV. 290 (2015).
Intuitive Formalism in Contract, 163 U. PA. L. REV. 2109 (2015)
The Common Sense of Contract Formation, 67 STAN. L. REV. 1269 (2015) (with David A. Hoffman).
Judging Similarity, 100 IOWA L. REV. 267 (2014) (with Shyamkrishna Balganesh & Irina D. Manta).
A Psychological Account of Consent to Fine Print, 99 IOWA L. REV. 1745 (2014)
The Psychology of Contract Precautions, 80 U. CHI. L. REV. 395 (2013) (with David Hoffman)
Legal Promise and Psychological Contract, 47 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 843 (2012).
Breach is for Suckers, 63 VAND. L. REV. 1003 (2010) (with David Hoffman).
Fault in Contracts, A Psychological Approach, in FAULT IN AMERICAN CONTRACT LAW (Omri Ben-Shahar & Ariel Porat eds., Cambridge University Press, 2010).
More publications can be found here.
Working Papers
Demand for Breach (April 20, 2014). U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 14-19. (forthcoming)
[View Document]
Fee Salience in Retirement Investment Choices (with Jill Fisch). (forthcoming)
The Sucker Norm: Betrayal, Humiliation, and Retaliation in Economic Behavior. (forthcoming)
Research Areas
- Contract Law
- Negotiation
- Family Law
- Experimental Economics
- Moral Judgment
Positions
Penn Law – Assistant Professor of Law (2010- ); George Sharswood Fellow in Law and Psychology, Lecturer in Law (2008-10)
University of Pennsylvania College of Arts & Sciences – Graduate Fellow, Teaching Assistant (2005-08)
Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, Portland, Maine – Summer Associate (2004)
Education Law Center, Philadelphia – Summer Intern (2003)
Courses
- Contracts
- Psychological Analysis of Legal Decision-Making
- Gender, Psychology, and Law