Call for EMBER Grants
The Consortium on Moral Decision-Making is seeking proposals for Ember Grants (as the spark for a flame) to support up-start interdisciplinary research related to the conceptual and empirical study of human morality and ethical decision-making. How do people decide whether to help or harm others, whom to trust and cooperate with, and how much to assign punishment and blame for transgressions? How do these trade offs play out in light of current events, including the pandemic, human-AI relations, climate change, and the political landscape? Understanding human morality and ethics requires drawing upon insights from a diverse range of disciplines, and the current request for proposals aims to motivate scholars to find such connections in exploring the nature of human morality. The goal of the Consortium, which is funded generously through College of the Liberal Arts, Social Science Research Institute, Rock Ethics Institute, McCourtney Institute for Democracy, the Philosophy Department, and the Psychology Department, is to cultivate new projects that bring together people in projects such as these. The Consortium was also supported through an additional SSRI Level 4 Interdisciplinary Research Initiative grant to facilitate the long-term growth of the network and the training of early career researchers.
This call is open to faculty-led teams at Penn State, with an ideal focus on interdisciplinary teams from within the Consortium’s faculty members. Graduate student collaborators are welcome as part of application teams as well, but there should be a faculty PI. Collaborators from outside Penn State are allowed, but the lead PI should be based at one of the Penn State campuses.
Although the seed grants are ideally suited for applicants who propose to apply empirical study to human morality and ethics (e.g., through data collection, narrative review of data), we also welcome applications for projects that are more conceptual in nature. Interdisciplinary projects are encouraged but not a requirement for applications.
Applicants may request anywhere from $500-$1000, and funds can be put toward participant recruitment, workshops or reading groups, and other support for the research project. We anticipate making ten to twelve awards. Ideally, these awards will support the seeking of external support and/or efforts to publish research. As a condition of funding, all awardees will be expected to attend an in-person half-day conference at the end of spring 2026 in which they will present their in-progress research ideas and/or results to members of the Rock Ethics community. Furthermore, awardees must use these funds during the fiscal year which they are awarded, until Tuesday, June 30, 2026.
Proposals should have the following:
– A one-page summary of the proposed work, outlining the justification, background, and proposed work and use of funds, as well as a clear explanation of the connection to moral decision-making and the fit with the interdisciplinary mission of the Consortium
- Budget request and justification
- CV’s for all team members
- A short three to four sentence abstract that we would use to publicly describe the funded projects.
Send questions and applications through the following Application Link.
The deadline for submissions is by 5:00 p.m. E.S.T. on Friday, February 27, 2026, and a number of proposals will be awarded, based on review by a small team of Consortium members, by the third week of March 2026 (i.e., after spring break).
To learn more about the funded projects from 2024 and 2025, see the slides below. To hear more about these projects, see the archive of the presentations from awardees on the videos widget on the Events page of this website.
Intergenerational Empathic Effort
Daryl Cameron, associate professor of psychology, Penn State; and Stylianos Syropoulous, assistant professor, and Kyle Law, postdoctoral scholar, Global Futures School of Sustainability, University of Arizona
This study will use an adapted empathy selection task to examine whether anticipated effort predicts empathy selection, how empathy influences moral obligation, and whether interventions can increase intergenerational concern by virtue of increasing empathy expressed towards future people and decreasing empathy avoidance.
Climate change natural disasters, risk aversion, and chances of social unrest
Xun Cao, professor of political science and public policy, Penn State
By exploring individual and collective decision-making processes in the context of global climate change, this project would generate important policy implications to provide better solutions to mediate the negative impacts of climate change and help to achieve ethical distribution of resources to prevent future harm.
Divided we keep? Evaluating the effect of socioeconomic segregation on generosity
Gary Adler, associate professor, and Ian Rowe-Nicholls, doctoral student, sociology and criminology, Penn State
The researchers theorize that visible markers of poverty and affluence in one local community affect perceptions of broader societal hardship and resource disparity, as well as socioeconomic privilege and personal sense of moral obligation to give. As a result, they hypothesize that income diversity in one local community affects individuals’ propensity to give differently based on their own socioeconomic status, but mixed-income communities provide more money to charity overall than more socioeconomically segregated communities.
Geographies of influence: Analyzing Juul Lab’s targeted marketing and youth educational campaigns through internal corporate documents
Emily Rosenman, assistant professor, and Louisa Holmes, associate professor, geography, Penn State
This project will examine internal corporate documents made public through state and federal lawsuits against Juul Labs, the producer of a leading nicotine e-cigarette product in the U.S. Building on previous work analyzing corporate strategies in the opioid industry, this research aims to understand the development of Juul’s educational programs, the specific groups they aimed to influence, and the broader implications for public health interventions.
Understanding Ethical Decision-Making in Reporting Research Misconduct
Courtney Karmelita, executive director of ethical research and outreach; Jennifer Nicholas, director of the office of postdoctoral affairs; Jennifer McCormick, associate professor; Leah Hollis, associate dean, access equity and inclusion; and Moriah Szpara, professor of biology, Penn State – This pilot study aims to explore the ethical decision-making process that leads trainees to report misconduct, identify what unethical behaviors they are witnessing, and understand how they evaluate such actions. The findings will inform interventions to promote ethical decision-making and address integrity issues in research.
New research in moral psychology with applications to technology ethics
Timothy Kwiatek, assistant teaching professor, and Tim Elmo Feiten, assistant teaching professor, philosophy, Penn State – The main aim of the project will be to consider different models for thinking about blame and especially praise (far less researched) and consider them in relation to internet mediated communication and especially large language models (LLMs.)
Presenting research
Sean Laurent, assistant professor; Becca Ruger, graduate student; and WIktoria Pedryc, graduate student, psychology, Penn State
This grant will enable two graduate student consortium members to travel to present their work on moral decision-making at an international, interdisciplinary conference on morality. Attending the conference will allow the students to highlight consortium-supported work and the moral psychology hub at Penn State, while also allowing them to make connections that will foster collaborations with interdisciplinary researchers from other countries.
Does Moral Outrage Open Minds? Moral outrage and moral information-seeking
Faruk Yalcin, graduate student, psychology, Penn State
This project investigates whether experiencing moral outrage can motivate people to seek out information that challenges their views on moral issues. Findings from this study could offer us insights as to whether experiencing moral outrage on social media has the potential to bridge moral divisions.
On the invariance of artificial morality: Using machine learning to map the AI moral domain
Joshua Wenger, graduate student, psychology, Penn State
Grounded in modern machine learning techniques and psychometrics, the present work proposes a novel methodology for exploring general human conceptions of the moral domain, and how this understanding of morality aligns with AI. Findings contribute to the broader ethical debate of AI morality, and moral psychological debate surrounding the use of AI as an experimental participant.
New Research in Moral Psychology with Applications to Technology Ethics
Tim Elmo Feiten and Timothy Kwiatek, Department of Philosophy
We are requesting a seed grant to start an interdisciplinary research group to investigate the intersection between moral psychology and technology ethics, especially concerning human- LLM interactions. Our aim is to produce both conceptual papers and new empirical research. The seed grant will help us fund the first phase in which we read David Shoemaker’s 2024 book The Architecture of Praise and Blame: An Interdisciplinary Investigation with an interdisciplinary group of scholars from across Penn State, in particular from the Departments of Philosophy, Psychology, and Economics (all of which the book draws on). Based on our critical discussion of the book, we will start writing a conceptual research paper as well as a grant application for an empirical study. The precise details of the study will be informed by our conceptual analysis of the Shoemaker book and our current plan is to investigate how humans and LLMs assign praise and blame to other humans and LLMs. We feel that our project closely matches the research mission and interdisciplinary spirit of the consortium and would be very grateful for seed funding to support our plan.
The main aim of our group will be to consider different models for thinking about blame and especially praise (far less researched) and consider them in relation to internet mediated communication and especially LLMs. This inquiry can be fruitful in either direction: philosophy can help draw conceptual distinctions and generate hypotheses, while empirical research can help both refine and test philosophical concepts. Our reading of the Shoemaker book in an interdisciplinary group and subsequent writing of a research paper and grant proposal have the potential to show how concepts of praise and blame can help us understand human interactions in and with emerging technologies, and also show how these technologies themselves can help us gain a better understanding of praise and blame more generally.
Moral Decision-making Concerning War Crimes
Catherine Wanner, Professor of History, Anthropology and Religious Studies, College of the Liberal Arts;
Lena Suzkho-Harned, Associate Teaching Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Public Policy Initiative, Penn State Behrend
What constitutes a war crime and which war crimes have been committed in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022? This research examines the moral implications of reacting to atrocities committed during war. Specifically, we analyze how understandings are formed as to who has a responsibility to respond to the restoration and healing of a traumatized population and a ravaged country, and how understandings might come to differ as to where that responsibility begins and where it ends.
Empathy from Artificial Intelligence
Daryl Cameron, Associate Professor of Psychology
Joshua Wenger, Ph.D. student in Social Psychology
This study will examine whether individuals prefer to receive empathy from human versus AI interaction partners. Participants will be presented with vignettes in which they will imagine themselves as the central actor in empathy-evoking scenarios. Participants will then have the choice to receive either empathy or a neutral description of the scenario from human or AI sources. Studies will also explore a possible differential preference in receiving compassion versus experience sharing.
Activational Effects of Ovarian Steroids on Empathy
David Puts, Professor of Anthropology; Mark Shriver, Professor of Anthropology; Nancy Williams, Professor and Head of Kinesiology
Laura Weyrich, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Sojung Baek, graduate student in Anthropology
Social behavior is modulated by ovarian steroid hormones in nonhuman primates, but evidence for such associations in humans are mixed, and relevant studies are few. This study investigates the roles of ovarian steroids measured from metabolites of estradiol and progesterone, individual characteristics, and their interactions in predicting empathic behaviors across the ovulatory cycle. Hormones and behavioral data will be collected daily for at least an entire ovulatory cycle, a dense sampling schedule that is likely to generate the measurement precision necessary for revealing existing behavioral patterns.
Promoting Pronoun Fluency: Individual factors and group dynamics
Evan Bradley, Associate Professor of Psychology and Linguistics
This mixed-methods project investigates individual and contextual factors affecting the adoption of nonbinary pronouns in educational settings, through a fun and interactive experimental paradigm. By analyzing participants’ interactions in real-time, and connecting them to offline measures, we plan to identify strategies for accelerating pronoun fluency, thereby fostering a safer environment for gender diversity.
Geographies of corporate harm: unveiling opioid industry targeted marking strategies to develop effective counter-interventions at multiple scales
Emily Rosenman, Assistant Professor of Geography and Affiliate Faculty Member, Consortium on Moral Decision Making;
Louisa Holmes, Assistant Professor of Geography and Associate Faculty, Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction (CSUA); Social Science Research Institute (SSRI co-funded)
This project investigates how the pharmaceutical industry has targeted vulnerable populations for aggressive opioid marketing, seeking novel supply-side understandings of the uneven landscapes of opioid use disorder, opioid deaths, and other types of community harm. Given ongoing distribution to US counties of settlement funds from lawsuits against the opioid industry, our findings relate to equitable and ethical distribution of resources to ameliorate and prevent future harm. In this the study brings moral decision-making squarely to the center to inform key actionable strategies of regulation, policy, and public health interventions to help groups that were targeted by pharmaceutical company marketing.
Love of the Self, Ethics of the Other: Phenomenological Platonism (Research and Workshop)
Huaiyuan Zhang, dual-degree Ph.D. student in Philosophy and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies
This proposal bridges classical studies with contemporary philosophy through both conceptual research and an interdisciplinary workshop. To facilitate the genesis of Levinasian ethics as being good to the Other, it theorizes the requisite subjectivity for ethical responsiveness. It argues that our capacity for ethical action stems from a fundamental susceptibility to perceive the needs of strangers as objects of desire, not hatred, intertwined with self acceptance and openness to alterity. Addressing contemporary challenges of cross-cultural understanding, it elaborates on Levinas’ new return to Plato by examining how love contributes to ethical self-formation.
A Communication Interdependence Perspective on Roommate Relationships: Examining How and Why College Roommates Support Each Other Through Multiple Media
Kelly Sweeney, Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Assistant, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences;
Andrew High, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences
Drawing from the Communication Interdependence Perspective (CIP), this project investigates how college roommates manage supportive conversations across various communication channels. Understanding communication interdependence as a moral question involves recognizing the interconnectedness of roommates’ lives and its impact on their well-being and moral values. By examining communication patterns among roommates, this study sheds light on how they foster support, morality, and well-being through diverse communication channels, expanding upon CIP dynamics within non-romantic relationships. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this research contributes to understanding how roommates utilize communication to cultivate connections, support, and moral values, ultimately enriching our knowledge of interpersonal dynamics in mixed-media relationships.
Knowledge Negotiation, Relationship Cultivation, and Community Building: A Linguistic Ethnographic Study of Shared Decision-Making among Older Adults in Retirement Communities
Minghui Sun, Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Linguistics, College of the Liberal Arts;
Robert Schrauf, Professor in Applied Linguistics, College of the Liberal Arts
This project is designed to explore the moral and ethical aspects of shared decision-making processes among older adults living in Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), and to unravel the intricacies of interpersonal relationships forming and community building at the last stage of psychosocial development, namely old age (Erikson, 1950). Specifically, the project adopts the linguistic ethnography approach to examine the shared decision-making processes related to the Garage/Yard Sale, a community-wide event organized entirely by current residents of a CCRC in the northeastern US. Throughout the entire preparation and organization process, older adults engage in multiple rounds of discussions concerning the nomination, evaluation, and recruitment of fellow residents to contribute to the Garage Sale’s successful execution. By exploring these individual and collective decision-making processes, the project illuminates how personal agency and moral accountability intertwine within the dynamics of group decisions, shedding light on the nuanced interplay between language, signs, and societal decision-making processes
Clarifying Relationships Between Evaluations of Moral and Immoral Behavior: Sometimes One Coin, Sometimes Two
Sean Laurent, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Becca Ruger, Second Year Graduate Student in Psychology
Iris (Sooyun) Chung, First Year Graduate Student in Psychology.
The study of “moral” decision-making implies the study of both moral and immoral behavior, but a disproportionate number of studies about “moral judgment” mostly study bad behavior. This single word also implies that moral character judgments might be unidimensional, ranging from “very immoral” to “very moral,” but little is known about how bad behavior might only sometimes prompt inferences about moral character and how prosocial behavior might only sometimes prompt inferences about immoral character. The work I am proposing will support ongoing empirical and theoretical efforts to reconcile this gap in our understanding, ultimately aiming to show when and why judgments of moral and immoral character are sometimes part of a single dimension, and at other times might be considered as two distinct areas of social judgment.
No Laughing Matter: Can Humorous Activism Boost Climate Action Success?
Sophia A. McClennen, Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature
Reginald Adams, Professor of Psychology
Janet Swim, Professor of Psychology
Joseph Wright Professor of Political Science
This project compares the efficacy of different forms of nonviolent activism – conventional tactics and comedic dilemma tactics – in the context of environmental activism in order to measure if comedic dilemma tactics can potentially counter negative stereotypes people hold about environmental activist groups and negative impressions of their tactics, and if using such tactics increases willingness to support such groups. This issue is paramount to moral decision-making because, while the general public tends to worry about the environment, they are disinterested in engaging in climate advocacy. Building on findings that creative activism is more effective than conventional activism and that dilemma actions that force negative outcomes for targets are associated with increased success for nonviolent campaigns, we test how distinct types of activism influence perceptions of activist groups and their sense that their support for an activist group will be worthwhile. We examine these perceptions and effects across a wide variety of cultural contexts in the Global North and the Global South. Further, we assess these perceptions both within the activist community and among different groups of citizens.
Empathic Signaling as a Mechanism of Formation and Maintenance of Social Capital Among Women of Matlab, Bangladesh.
David Puts, Professor of Anthropology; Mary Shenk, Associate Professor of Anthropology;
Sojung Baek, Graduate Student in Anthropology
Throughout evolutionary history, human females have faced ecological pressures, such as exogamous marriage, that may have selected for specialized psychobehavioral tendencies that promote same-sex dyadic relations, which provide social support. Empathic response has the potential to enable subtle social strategies among women, whose use and acquisition of social status and power may be limited in male-centric societies. Motivated by signaling theory, we seek to understand the signal value of empathic response and whether the value is associated with the formation and maintenance of the signaler’s social network, and thus her access to social capital.