Events

This two-day interdisciplinary event brought together researchers from psychology, political science, philosophy, computer science, and related fields to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and social research. The conference featured invited talks, panel discussions, and a closing roundtable.

This event through the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making brought 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 was 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. Chuck Huff talked about his book Taking Moral Action as well, which covers interdisciplinary boundary-crossing in studying morality. Scholars from anthropology, psychology, philosophy, history and religious studies, public policy, and management and organizations convened to work through and build each other’s thinking to highlight the value of collaborative, constructive conversation.

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.

Jo-Anne McArthur did a roundtable on methodology in photojournalism, in conversation with Penn State Professor of Art and Photography, Steven Rubin, and many other faculty and students (including Catherine Wanner, Rob Chiles, and more). 

In March 2026, the Consortium hosted a special Expanding Empathy event including award-winning animal photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur (website), who gave a keynote lecture about her work documenting animal suffering and the challenges and rewards of inspiring empathy for animals. Her talk was paired with a talk by psychologist Ivy Gilbert (website), who discussed how different kinds of imagery and advertisements can shape empathy in the context of animal agriculture. These conversations built on earlier presentations in the Expanding Empathy Speaker Series about opportunities and challenges in channeling empathy and moral intuitions for non-human animals.

Jodie Jensen (Psychology, Brigham Young University) visited to talk about definitions of empathy in psychology research.

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.

This event will bring together researchers in psychology, political science, communications, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology to discuss political divisions and moral decision-making. The event will be in person at Foster Auditorium on campus, with live-streaming on Zoom as well. The aim of the conference is to cultivate cross-disciplinary dialogues about this topic and generate new research collaborations.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Many of the seed grant award teams presented on their projects.

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.

Sojung Baek (doctoral candidate in Anthropology) talked about her seed grant-funded work with David Puts (Anthropology) and others.

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”.

Dr. Ben Jones (Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Assistant Director of Rock Ethics Institute) talked about a project examining race, policing, and policy alternatives.

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.

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.

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.