Moral Fragmentations and Boundaries
This event through the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making will bring together several scholars in the social sciences and humanities to talk about different disciplinary approaches to the study of “fragmentations” and moral boundaries. The event will be headlined by three keynote talks: philosophers Michael Brownstein (who is a Penn State Philosophy Ph.D. alumnus) and Daniel Kelly on their new book Somebody Should Do Something (on philosophy and social science of collective action), philosopher Matt Lindauer on his new book The Fruitfulness of Normative Concepts (on the practical relevance of philosophical ethics for social life), and policy and Rock Ethics scholar Ben Jones on his new book on the ethics of policing, Protecting Life: The Ethics of Police Deadly Force. Scholars from anthropology, psychology, philosophy, history and religious studies, public policy, and management and organizations will convene to work through and build each other’s thinking to highlight the value of collaborative, constructive conversation.
The event will be held downtown at the Innovation Hub, with coffee and refreshments provided, and also live-streamed. We encourage all who are interested in the exciting interface at the boundaries of our fields to check out this event.
AI in Social Research
Empathic AI, Metascience, and Methodology
This two-day interdisciplinary event will bring together researchers from psychology, political science, philosophy, computer science, and related fields to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and social research. The conference will feature invited talks, panel discussions, and a closing roundtable.
Upcoming Events
Past Events
Moral Measures Workshop
This event will bring together researchers to give short talks on methodology and measurement questions in the study of moral and ethical decision-making. Although many of our conference events have focused on theory development and new empirical findings, this is the first Consortium event that has focused specifically on methodology as the sole focus. We aim for this long-form workshop to be the first of several that directly address how best to conceptualize, think about, and test questions about moral decision-making.
How Can We Improve Our Decisions? Results From Multiple Methods And Experiments
Dr. Nick Byrd (Geisinger Health System) visited the Consortium virtually to discuss his work on cognitive reasoning, philosophical thought experiments, and public-focused decision-making. Click here to watch the video of his talk.
Dr. Cameron Leads PRC Seminar on “Empathic Choices and Interdisciplinary Moral Psychology”
Dr. Cameron visited with the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center and gave a talk on his work on motivated empathy regulation, and also discussed the interdisciplinary vision behind the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making. For more about the talk topic: https://prevention.psu.edu/event/seminar-with-daryl-cameron-ph-d.
Moral Snowballing: Confluences in the Depth and Breadth of Moral Concern
Joshua Rottman (Psychology at Franklin & Marshall College, and Fellow in Oxford Uehiro Center for Ethics) visited Penn State to talk about his research on the depth and breadth of moral concern. Watch the presentation below.
Moral Psychology Research Group/Consortium Conference 2024
In November 2024, the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making will be hosting a cross-over event with the Moral Psychology Research Group (https://sites.google.com/view/mprg/home), an interdisciplinary group of philosophers and psychologists. The aim of the conference was to bring together scholars from across the social sciences and humanities to have interdisciplinary conversations and build collaborations that advance the study of ethical and moral decisions.
Expanding Empathy: Empathy, Morality, and AI
How does AI provide, sustain, support, and challenge empathy? In April 2024, we brought together psychologists, philosophers, engineers, and computer scientists to discuss the interdisciplinary challenges of empathy and morality in human-AI interactions. Speakers visited in person and online from around the world.
Political Polarization Hack-a-Thon
We convened several researchers in psychology, political science, media studies, communication arts and sciences, and sociology to brainstorm new actionable ideas in political polarization and morality.
Consortium Seed Grant Presentations
Many of the seed grant award teams presented on their projects.
Seed Grant Talk: Empathy and Ovarian Hormones
David Puts (Professor in Anthropology) talked about his seed-grant funded work with Sojung Bank and colleagues on empathy and the activation of ovarian hormones. Watch the presentation below.
Seed Grant Talk: Empathic Signaling and Social Capital Among Bangladeshi Women
Sojung Baek (doctoral candidate in Anthropology) talked about her seed grant-funded work with David Puts (Anthropology) and others.
When “not caring” makes little sense
Dr. Sean Laurent (Assistant Professor in Psychology) presented in progress work related to democratic virtues and decision-making called “When ‘not caring’ makes little sense: The role of desire in moral character judgments of side-effect effects”.
What Impact Does Race Have on Support for Public Safety Alternatives to the Police?
Dr. Ben Jones (Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Assistant Director of Rock Ethics Institute) talked about a project examining race, policing, and policy alternatives.
Civic Education for a Serious People
Dr. Christopher Beem (Associate Research Professor and Managing Director, McCourtney Institute for Democracy) presented in progress work related to democratic virtues and decision-making called “Civics Education for a Serious People: 2 Proposals”. This meeting built from our previous meeting, in which we convened several different researchers to discuss complementary approaches to studying political polarization, with the aim of cultivating new projects.
Consortium Meeting on Political Polarization
During this meeting, faculty and graduate students had some great discussion surrounding our multidisciplinary interests in political polarization.
We are hoping that this meeting was a valuable starting point for considering grant applications, long term projects, etc.
First Consortium Meeting of the Semester
Dr. Terri Vescio, Professor of Psychology, presented a talk discussing idealized notions of masculinity that are culturally valued and linked to power, status, and success. She discussed the role of empathy in the socialization of masculinity. She also discussed the causes and consequences of threats to masculinity, with a specific focus on empathy and the sexualization of women.