Moral Psychology Research Group/Consortium Conference 2024
A cross-over event hosted by the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making with keynotes by Taya Cohen (Carnegie Mellon University) and Larisa Heiphetz Solomon (Columbia University) on Friday, November 15, 2024 starting at 3:00 p.m. EST in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, and via Zoom.
To be followed by a series of interdisciplinary talks from Penn State faculty and special external guests in 127 Moore Building on Saturday, November 16 and Sunday, November 17, 2024.
Upcoming Events
Past Events
Expanding Empathy: Empathy, Morality, and AI
How does AI provide, sustain, support, and challenge empathy?
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.