Conference Dates: Friday, November 15–Sunday, November 17, 2024
These public keynote lectures are in Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library on Penn State’s campus. This is about a 10-minute walk from the Nittany Lion Inn where guests are staying.
Guilt Proneness, Moral Awareness, and the Use of AI-Powered Tools
Guilt proneness, a moral character trait associated with a heightened sense of interpersonal responsibility, predicts positive work behaviors, including reduced deviance and dishonesty. This presentation explores the relationship between guilt proneness and moral awareness to make the case that differences between people in ethical decision-making are traceable to upstream differences in the way that they disambiguate and give meaning to the situations they encounter. The “character lens” hypothesis holds that sensemaking is an inherent part of a person’s character, and that character traits, such as guilt proneness, provide a lens through which people filter the world around them. This lens shapes answers to the questions “What is this situation? What considerations are important here?”. Studies of MBA students and online participants indicate that high moral character individuals are more chronically aware of the ethical implications of the situations and choices they face (see Helzer, Cohen, & Kim, 2023, Journal of Business Ethics; Helzer, Cohen, Kim, Iorio, & Aven, 2024, Journal of Research in Personality). My new research with Sofia Rodriguez Chaves applies these ideas to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at work. The rapid integration of AI-powered tools in business raises critical ethical considerations about their development and deployment. In a recent survey of 200 U.S. adults, we find that guilt proneness positively correlates with moral awareness and ethical considerations when deciding whether and how to use AI-powered tools. This finding underscores the importance of moral character, and guilt proneness in particular, in navigating the ethical challenges posed by AI and has implications for organizations seeking to promote responsible innovation and ethical AI development, deployment, and use.
The Psychology of Redemption
Moral violations are a daily occurrence: people speak unkindly to others, fail to fulfill their responsibilities, and commit a host of other wrongdoings against each other. Given the frequency with which people experience—and commit—moral transgressions, a society without a means to redeem transgressors risks becoming one that cannot sustain social bonds. To avoid this outcome, people need ways to decide when individuals have made good on their past wrongs and changed for the better—that is, when they have been redeemed. Despite the foundational role redemption plays in maintaining the social contract, a well-developed psychological science of redemption does not yet exist. In an effort to build such a science, the present work asked two main questions: How do children and adults understand the current moral character of people who have transgressed, and what expectations do they hold about these people’s future morality? Using incarceration as an example of a system that is ostensibly designed to rehabilitate people who have transgressed, we found that children were more likely than adults to view imprisoned individuals as bad people. Yet children were also more likely than adults to report that people would change for the better as a result of receiving punishment for their transgressions, demonstrating a developmental change in perceptions regarding the capacity for redemption. While currently existing theories do not account for the totality of these results, I propose a novel theoretical framework to account for how it can be that children are both particularly likely to attribute immoral essences to others and also particularly likely to see people as capable of moral improvement. Taken together, these studies shed light on moral cognition across development and highlight the need for a more robust psychological science of redemption.
The Allen Street Grill is about a 5-minute walk down the Pattee Mall from the Library to downtown State College
All Saturday and Sunday Events in 127 Moore Building (a short 5-minute walk down Fischer Road from Nittany Lion Inn)
Doing Peace Through Practical Wisdom
This talk revisits, reforms, and revives the ancient Greek virtue, phronesis (practical wisdom), for twenty-first century application.
Humility: Conceptualization of a Foundational Virtue for Digital Life
Humility is considered a vice in many corners of our proclamatory digital environment; its opposite, hubris, is arguably the order of the day. Bold pronouncement of opinion, rather than honest inquiry, too often defines our digital lives. Yet this project argues that the virtue of humility will play a curative role in any effort to address our largely toxic world of online communication. We argue that a reassertion of the virtue of humility, and the cultivation of strategies to encourage a more honest sense of self, will be critical in the construction of a digital ethos. We build on a recent resurgence of scholarship on humility, which serves to usher self-awareness and transcendence.
Moral Opportunities and Tradeoffs in Everyday Life
How often do people notice moral opportunities and face moral tradeoffs in everyday life? Using the Day Reconstruction Method, we find that people often experience opportunities to express virtues, but rarely face virtue tradeoffs (e.g., honesty vs. compassion) in everyday life. A follow-up study provides more detailed information about how people experience and resolve virtue tradeoffs.
Roundtable Discussion about Virtues, Continued Q&A
Lunch on your own in State College
Bridging divides: Children’s understanding of group norms
One noticeable way that people differ across groups is in the norms that they follow. Perhaps in some encounters, noticeable differences are unproblematic, or even spark interest and curiosity. But it is easy to imagine cases where one’s group identity or the contrast between norms of different groups can create conflict, divisiveness, or intolerance. I will present our recent work on when, if ever, children across cultures do or do not expect others to abide by their norms.
Explaining vicarious kin derogation—when people mock the innocent relatives of public figures
People often derogate the innocent children and spouses of leaders they dislike, despite the general human aversion to harm, and especially harming the innocent. We suggest that people do so because they believe doing so causes more suffering to disliked leaders than targeting them directly. We denote targeting someone’s vulnerable loved one to cause them suffering as “vicarious kin derogation.” Based on research on people’s lay understanding of special obligations to family ties, we argue that people assume that even hardened public figures have soft spots for their kin—especially when those innocent family members are seen as vulnerable. Six experiments in the context of online trolling within American politics support this hypothesis and rule out alternative explanations. Mediation analyses reveal that although people feel more satisfied with the increased suffering caused to politicians by derogating their relations, this satisfaction is also tempered by the aversion to harming the innocent. Together, these findings explore a feature of toxic discourse in modern America: mocking the children of political opponents.
Compassion Cartography: Mapping the Psychological Landscape of Equitable and Effective Altruism
I present evidence from an investigation exploring empathy, reasoning, and prosocial behavior among three groups: effective altruists (EAs––impact-prioritizing philanthropists), extraordinary altruists (XAs––living organ donors), and controls (N=360). While XAs have higher empathic ability and EAs demonstrate stronger reasoning skills, both increased empathy and reasoning predict greater equitable and effective altruistic behaviors across groups. These findings challenge the idea that empathy and reasoning are in conflict and suggest that exceptional altruism often requires both working together.
Roundtable Discussion about Group Boundaries, Continued Q&A
Randomizing the Tracks: A Robust Preference for Randomization Over both Action and Inaction in Moral Dilemmas
The Weight of Moral Decisions: The Psychological Causes and Consequences of Moral Injury
Talk abstract forthcoming.
Becca Ruger (Psychology, Penn State)
How bad they would have been: The role of counterfactual thought in moral judgments of actions, inactions, and outcome severity
Moral judgments of inaction have typically been studied in the context of trolley dilemmas or omission biases. The current work expands knowledge of moral inaction judgments outside of these frameworks by testing the impact of counterfactual thought and outcome severity on judgments of both actions and inactions. Beyond further insight into how inactions are judged, the work illustrates important factors to consider when conducting research on inaction.
Clara Sandu (Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University)
Appraisals of the New Other: Social Perceptions and Moral Attributions towards Artificial Intelligence versus Humans in an Economic Trust Game
This study explores how people make trust-based decisions and moral attributions when interacting with AI versus human advisors in an economic trust game. Participants assessed the praiseworthiness, blameworthiness, and intentionality of advisors after learning trust game outcomes, revealing how subjective perceptions of warmth, competence, social reciprocity, and moral status shape behavior toward AI as a social “other.” Our findings offer insight into the cognitive dimensions involved in human-AI interactions and their broader moral implications.
Joshua Wenger (Psychology, Penn State)
Participant preferences for human versus AI empathy expressions
Great ethical debate exists around empathic AI, with many discounting its empathy expressions as “fake”. Despite this, people consistently rate AI messages as more empathetic than human messages. Although past work has explored these ratings of AI empathy expressions, little research has examined whether people actively seek out such messages, or instead prefer human messages. The present research investigates whether people choose to receive empathetic expressions more from human or AI interaction partners. Participants read and imagined themselves in vignettes depicting various unfortunate circumstances (stepping on a thumb tack, losing a job, etc.). Following each individual vignette, participants chose between receiving an empathetic response from a human or AI. Participants also rated how empathetic they found each response. This research explores overall choice preference between human and AI empathy expressions, whether this preference varies between empathy and compassion or physical and emotional suffering, and how this preference relates to response ratings of empathy (i.e., if AI empathy expressions are rated as more empathetic, whether this actually translates to choosing to receive empathy from AI).
Jerry Richardson (Psychology, Cornell University)
Vividly Imagining Others’ Experiences Influences Moral Judgments of Their Actions
Humans represent the thoughts and feelings of others to better empathize with, understand, or predict their behavior. These processes could involve a fleeting thought about what a friend or colleague might be experiencing, or they could involve a more vivid conception of another person’s experiences—which may have consequences for judgments about their behavior and moral character. Across three preregistered studies (n=1060) we found evidence that vividly imagining another’s situation as if it were happening to oneself—similar to an actor embodying a role—moderates moral judgments of a target other in morally ambiguous situations. In Study 1 (n = 160), participants randomly assigned to act out a role in a scene from a play over Zoom (in pairs) rated their own character more favorably than those randomly assigned to play the opposing character. Study 2 (n = 451) replicated this effect, with participants evaluating the behavior and moral character of the role they “played”—by reading their lines aloud as if reflecting their own thoughts and feelings—more positively than those playing the other character. Moreover, these less harsh judgments of the target character were not found in a control group who simply read the scene in silence. In Study 3 (n = 449), we identified a boundary condition: playing an unambiguously immoral character did not produce the same effect, although the effect failed to replicate using a scene from a different play.
Jillian Meyer (Psychology and Cognitive Science, Indiana University)
Moral Values Education: Enhancing Moral Decision Making Through an Interdisciplinary Framework
Moral decision making plays a critical role in how individuals navigate complex social landscapes. Yet, as moral values are shaped by diverse philosophical, psychological, biological, and cultural factors, current measures often fail to fully capture the intricacies of human morality. This presentation proposes an interdisciplinary framework for moral values education, grounded in the “Big Three” of Morality (Shweder et al., 1997)—autonomy, community, and divinity—and drawing from fields such as philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, and more. In addition to presenting this theoretical framework, the talk will be interactive, inviting participants to engage in a collaborative discussion on how to measure moral behaviors using this interdisciplinary model. By integrating diverse perspectives, we will explore how to effectively capture and assess the values that influence moral decision making across various contexts. Through this combination of theory and hands-on discussion, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how to apply this framework to both research and educational settings. This approach not only advances theoretical insights into moral psychology but also offers practical applications for improving character education and fostering moral development.
Check out classical guitarist Julia Trintschuk’s recital at 7:30 p.m. in Recital Hall!
Lost in Translation? Multilingual (Mis)gendering
What happens when languages that encode gender in very different ways interact with each other? We’re studying multilingual individuals to better understand how grammar, individual attitudes and societal norms interact to shape languages and conversations. I’ll share some quantitative data from a study of L2 English users from different backgrounds, and qualitative findings from interviews with Maltese LGBTQ+ people.
Endorsement of Hegemonic Masculinity Predicts Voting in 2024 and Participation in Violence against LGBTQ People
Within a given culture, there is an idealized form of masculinity that is elevated above other forms of masculinity and femininity. Most people – regardless of gender identification – endorse and accept the idealized form of masculinity as normative and beneficial. However, the idealized form of masculinity is founded on the gender binary, assumptions of heteronormativity, and the acceptance of violence from those who strive to embody idealized forms of masculinity. This leads to attitudes and behavior that justify and legitimate violence against LGBTQ people. I will discuss research showing that those who endorse culturally idealized forms of masculinity – regardless of one’s gender identification – are more likely to vote for status quo maintaining candidates and are more prejudiced toward and accepting of policies that limit the rights of LGBTQ people. I will also describe research showing that some interactions with LGBTQ people provide threats to White, heterosexual, cisgender men’s conceptualizations of masculinity that leads to the acceptance and participation in violence toward LGBTQ people. Together, we will discuss how to challenge binary based conceptualizations of gender that legitimate and justify violence toward gender non-conforming people.
How and why: Endocrine and ecological approaches to understanding empathy
A multidisciplinary approach is applied to understand the mechanisms and social functions of empathy across two ongoing studies. The first 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. Multilevel time-lagged analysis will be used to test temporal relationships between changes in hormone concentrations and changes in empathic interactions. The second study explores how empathic interactions (receipt, provision) are associated with the formation and maintenance of social capital, including social networks, subjective well-being, and belongingness, among women in rural Matlab, Bangladesh. Multilevel (dyad level) and multivariate (individual level) analysis indicated that empathy receipt and provisioning had differential impacts on social capital, and that recently married daughters-in-law provide higher levels of empathic provisioning than other women.
Unexpected dimensions of person perception
Moral evaluations are often straightforward, such as when a person harms another and is morally condemned for doing so. Yet, because people are naturally imaginative, they sometimes use information to construct narratives that travel beyond the bounds of what they actually know, leading them to negatively evaluate others (or evaluate them more negatively) when doing so might be inappropriate.
Box Lunch from Webster’s Cafe in the Atrium in Moore Building
Conference Ends
Conference Contact:
Daryl Cameron: cdc49@psu.edu
Penn State Presenters
Dr. Daryl Cameron is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds B.A. degrees in Philosophy and Psychology from the College of William and Mary. Dr. Cameron’s research focuses on the psychological processes underlying empathy and moral decision-making, particularly examining motivational factors that influence empathic emotions and behaviors. His work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science. He has received multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and has been recognized with awards such as the Early Career in Affective Science Award from the Society for Affective Science in 2022.
Dr. Sean M. Laurent is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University, specializing in social and moral cognition. He directs the Morality and Social Cognition (MASC) Lab, where his research focuses on how individuals perceive and evaluate others’ minds and behaviors, particularly in forming and revising moral judgments. Dr. Laurent’s work encompasses areas such as perspective-taking, empathy, intentionality, and the psychology of law. His research has been published in leading journals, including Cognition and Emotion and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Theresa K. Vescio is a Professor of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Kansas in 1996. Dr. Vescio’s research focuses on understanding the factors that facilitate and temper the expression of sexism, racism, and heterosexism. She is particularly interested in the interplay between the stereotypic behaviors of powerful individuals and the consequences of those behaviors on the emotions, motivation, and performance of low-power individuals, including women, gay men, and people of color. Additionally, her work examines the role of hegemonic masculinity in maintaining the status quo through political preferences and acceptance of violence. Her research has been published in leading journals, including Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science.
Dr. Patrick Lee Plaisance is the Don W. Davis Professor in Ethics at Penn State’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and an Affiliate Faculty member with the Rock Ethics Institute. His research focuses on media ethics theory, moral psychology, and the philosophy of technology as applied to media systems and practices. He is the author of “Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice” and “Virtue in Media: The Moral Psychology of Excellence in News and Public Relations.” Dr. Plaisance serves as editor of the Journal of Media Ethics and has published extensively in journals such as Communication Research and Journal of Communication. Before joining Penn State, he taught at Colorado State University and had a 15-year career as a newspaper journalist.
Dr. Lisa Silvestri is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa in 2014. Dr. Silvestri’s research interests encompass war, peace, politics, social justice, digital culture, democracy, and civic life. Her scholarship has been featured in journals such as New Media & Society, Memory Studies, Visual Communication Quarterly, The International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Rhetoric and Public Affairs. She is the author of Friended at the Front: Social Media in the American War Zone, which received the James W. Carey Media Research Award in 2016. In 2017, she was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her community-based initiative, Telling War, aimed at amplifying veteran voices through various storytelling forms. Her latest book, Peace by Peace: Risking Public Action, Creating Social Change, explores peace as an artful and life-giving civic practice.
Dr. David Puts is a Professor of Anthropology at The Pennsylvania State University, where he also serves as Co-Director of the Center for Human Evolution and Diversity. He earned his Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh and completed postdoctoral training in neuroscience at Michigan State University. Dr. Puts directs the Behavioral Endocrinology and Evolution Lab, focusing on the evolution and development of human sexuality and sex differences, particularly how sex hormones influence sexual psychology, behavior, and anatomy. His research has been published in leading journals, including Evolution and Human Behavior and Hormones and Behavior. He is Co-Editor of the journal Evolutionary Psychology and Editor of Evolution and Human Behavior.
Sojung Baek is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests encompass behavioral endocrinology, human behavioral ecology, and social psychology, with a focus on human empathy. During academic semesters, she conducts hormonal assays in the wet lab, and during breaks, she travels to Bangladesh to interview women about their empathic expressions and support networks. In 2024, she presented at the Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS) conference, where she received the Best Student Presenter Award.
Dr. Evan D. Bradley is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Penn State Brandywine. He earned his B.A. in Cognitive Science with a certificate in Music from Northwestern University, and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Delaware. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Lawrence University, he joined Penn State Brandywine in 2013. Dr. Bradley’s research interests include speech and music perception, language acquisition, and language variation. He directs the Brandywine Linguistics and Music Perception (BLiMP) Laboratory, where current projects investigate the relationship between language and music, particularly how tone languages are learned, and the emergence and use of gender-neutral pronouns like singular ‘they’. His work has been published in journals such as Language Sciences and Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain. Dr. Bradley also serves as chair of the Committee on Public Policy of the Linguistic Society of America and is an associate editor for the journal Psychological Reports.
Becca Ruger is a graduate student in the Psychology and Social Data Analytics departments at Penn State University. She earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from Bradley University, where she conducted research in cognitive development and environmental psychology. At Penn State, Becca works primarily with Dr. Sean Laurent in the Morality and Social Cognition (MASC) Lab, investigating how people morally evaluate others, focusing on factors influencing moral judgments of actions and inactions. Her research interests encompass moral psychology, with applications aimed at informing interventions and policy. Prior to her graduate studies, Becca worked as a research assistant at Jump Simulation, collaborating on projects in biomedical engineering, simulation, and education.
Joshua Wenger is a first-year doctoral student in the Social Psychology program at Penn State University. He earned his B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience from Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. Joshua is a member of the Empathy and Moral Psychology (EMP) Lab, where his research interests include the moral psychology of artificial intelligence, self-transcendent emotions, and moral judgment. In 2024, he was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which will support his research and training for the next several years. Additionally, Joshua collaborates with Dr. Daryl Cameron on studies examining how individuals respond to empathy and moral disagreements received from AI chatbots.
External Presenters
Dr. Taya R. Cohen is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and Business Ethics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. She co-directs the Collaboration and Conflict Research Lab and teaches graduate courses and executive education seminars on negotiation and organizational behavior. Using theory and methods from the fields of organizational behavior, psychology, and business ethics, her work focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of unethical behavior and identifying strategies for promoting honesty and ethical decision making in the workplace.
Dr. Cohen is a Past-President of the International Association for Conflict Management (IACM) and serves on editorial review boards for several journals in her field. She publishes her work in top management and psychology journals, and has been featured in prominent media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, BBC, NPR, TIME magazine, and the Hidden Brain. She has received outstanding publication awards from the International Association for Conflict Management and from the International Society for Self and Identity. In 2020, she was recognized as one of the Best 40 Under 40 MBA Professors by Poets & Quants. Her professional service at Carnegie Mellon includes leading the interdisciplinary Center for Behavioral and Decision Research (CBDR) as one of the faculty steering committee members.
Dr. Cohen earned a B.A. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the faculty at Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Cohen spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Dispute Resolution Research Center at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Dr. Larisa Heiphetz Solomon is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, where she runs the Columbia Social and Moral Cognition Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University, and her B.A. in Psychology with Honors and High Distinction from Penn State University. Dr. Solomon’s lab focuses on moral cognition in children and adults. Some studies investigate topics of central interest to moral philosophy and psychology, such as the extent to which moral beliefs are similar to other mental states and the role of moral beliefs in identity. In addition to this line of work, they study two topics related to moral psychology. First, because many people link religion and morality, they are interested in how individuals think about religious ideas and how they perceive religious out-group members. Second, because involvement in the criminal justice system is often associated with moral transgressions, they are interested in how individuals think about the justice system and about individuals who are involved in this system.
Dr. Simone Tang is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. She earned her Ph.D. in Management and Organizations from Duke University, and holds both a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Tang’s research focuses on morality and ethics within organizations, exploring how moral values influence attitudes, judgments, and behaviors. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Cognitive Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. She has received multiple grants, including the President’s Council of Cornell Women Affinito-Stewart grant, and has been recognized with awards such as the Cornell University SHA Faculty Teaching Award. Dr. Tang’s research has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, Psychology Today, and Fast Company.
Dr. Jessie Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Davis, and her B.A. (Honours) from the University of Melbourne. Dr. Sun’s research examines two fundamental aspects of the good life—well-being and morality—in real-world contexts. To study people “in the wild,” she uses a diverse methodological toolkit, including experience sampling, naturalistic audio recordings, informant reports, and personality change interventions. Her work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science. Prior to joining Washington University, Dr. Sun was a MindCORE Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Christopher Y. Olivola is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He earned a joint Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Policy from Princeton University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Olivola’s research focuses on the psychology of human decision-making and behavioral economics, exploring topics such as the accuracy and impact of first impressions, human conceptions of randomness, factors influencing charitable giving, and the psychology of martyrdom. His work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science. Before joining Carnegie Mellon, he was a Newton International Fellow in the Behavioural Science Group at Warwick Business School in the UK. Dr. Olivola’s research continues to be funded by the Royal Society and The British Academy.
Dr. James L. Floman is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He received his PhD at the University of British Columbia, where he studied the effects of mindfulness and compassion meditation on teacher emotion regulation and prosocial behavior with Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl. He received his MA in Psychology at Rutgers University, where he studied appraisal theory and discrete positive emotions with Dr. Ira Roseman.
Dr. Floman has three core research streams: 1) The assessment of dynamic social-affective processes (i.e., developing and validating EI and well-being measurement tools); 2) EI, mindfulness, and well-being training (i.e., developing, optimizing, and scaling EI and well-being-enhancement interventions for real-world applications); and 3) Affective neuroscience (studying mental training-induced changes in ‘emotional brain’ function and structure). Dr. Floman’s research aims to foster healthy developmental trajectories in adults by drawing on innovations in affective science from psychology, education, and neuroscience.
Jeremy Richardson is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Psychology at Cornell University, working under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Gilovich in the Judgment and Belief Lab. His research focuses on moral judgment, decision-making, and the psychology of privilege. Jeremy’s work has been published in Royal Society Open Science, including a study co-authored with Dr. Gilovich titled “A very public replication of the temporal pattern to people’s regrets.” In 2024, he advanced to the final round of Cornell’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, showcasing his ability to effectively communicate complex research to a broad audience. Jeremy is also actively involved in the academic community, co-hosting events such as the Cognitive Science Film Series at Cornell.
Jillian Meyer is a dual Ph.D. candidate in Social Psychology and Cognitive Science at Indiana University Bloomington. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Communication from DePauw University in 2023, where she was part of the Honor Scholar Program and interned at the Prindle Institute for Ethics. Jillian’s research interests lie in moral psychology, focusing on how individuals make decisions about right and wrong. She is a member of Dr. Ed Hirt’s lab and Dr. Fritz Breithaupt’s Experimental Humanities Lab, where she investigates moral values, decision-making, and ethics.
Clara Sandu is a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University. She earned her B.S. in Neuroscience and B.A. in Studio Art from Bucknell University in 2020. Clara’s research interests focus on the cognitive underpinnings of complex social behavior and decision-making. She explores how cognitive processes such as empathy, theory of mind, sensory perception, attention, memory, and imagination impact subjective representations, as well as affective and behavioral manifestations within social contexts. Clara is particularly interested in leveraging neuroimaging and eye-tracking methods to investigate the neural dynamics underlying prosocial behavior toward human outgroups, animals, and artificial intelligence. She currently serves as the Lab Manager for Dr. Scott Huettel’s laboratory at Duke.
Dr. Meltem Yücel is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NRSA; F32). She earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology with a concentration in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Virginia in 2021. Dr. Yücel’s research focuses on the development of social cognition and morality, investigating how individuals across the lifespan understand and respond to different norms and norm violations. She employs methods such as behavioral experiments, eye-tracking, pupillometry, and social network analysis. Committed to making psychology more accessible, Dr. Yücel founded the PsychResearchList, a platform aimed at diversifying the field by enhancing transparency and accessibility. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2022 Society for Affective Science Best Dissertation in Affective Science Award. She has also been featured as a guest expert on the podcast “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness,” discussing topics related to gossip and moral psychology.
Guests
Dr. Jordan Wylie is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Boston College. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center. Dr. Wylie’s research investigates how moral rules and norms affect what we are interested in and how we reason about everything from punishment to public policy. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Cognition and Scientific Reports. Dr. Wylie is also a research fellow at More in Common and an affiliate at the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding at the University of North Carolina. In 2025, she will join Cornell University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology.
Dr. Stylianos (Stelios) Syropoulos is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston College, affiliated with the Morality Lab, the Social Influence and Social Change Lab, and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society. He earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology with a concentration in the Psychology of Peace and Violence from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022. Dr. Syropoulos’s research focuses on how perceptions of past and future generations influence intergenerational, environmental, and moral decision-making. He is particularly interested in what motivates individuals to engage in prosocial actions, even when such actions come at a personal cost. His work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Environmental Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Dr. Syropoulos has received multiple grants and awards for his research, including funding from the National Science Foundation. He is also a Research Associate at the See Change Institute and has served as a methodology consultant for the Center for Research on Families.
Dr. Ana Gantman is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from New York University in 2016 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University. Dr. Gantman’s research focuses on moral psychology, investigating how moralization influences behavior, cognition, and perception. She directs the Gantman Lab at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, where her team explores topics such as moral judgment, moral language, and the impact of morality on visual perception. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Cognition and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Dr. Gantman has received several accolades, including the SAGE Young Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and being named a “Rising Star” by the Association for Psychological Science.
Ivy T. Gilbert is a Ph.D. student in Social Psychology at Cornell University, working under the mentorship of Dr. Laura Niemi in the Applied Moral Psychology Lab. She holds an M.A. in Linguistics from Florida Atlantic University. Ivy’s research focuses on moral psychology and cognitive linguistics, particularly in the context of animal agriculture. Her interests include understanding consumer perceptions of animal-based products, developing interventions to enhance moral concern for farmed animals, and exploring effective framing of animal rights issues. She employs methods such as corpus-assisted discourse analysis and ecolinguistic strategies to promote species inclusivity. Ivy has been actively involved in organizing academic events, serving on the planning committee for the 2024 Cornell Undergraduate Psychology Conference. She also contributes to the academic community through her role in Marginalia Science, a group dedicated to promoting underrepresented research topics and scholars. Her work has been featured in publications like the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s newsletter.
Madhulika Shastry is a Ph.D. student in Social Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, working under the mentorship of Dr. Kurt Gray. She earned her B.S. in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience, along with a B.A. in Cognitive Science, from the University of Michigan in 2022. Madhulika’s research explores the intersections of morality, online behavior, and artificial intelligence. She investigates how empathic AI influences human behavior and how individuals perceive AI as a source of empathy. Additionally, she examines moral responsibility and narratives, focusing on whether people feel more or less morally obligated to assist others who share stories of victimization online. Prior to her doctoral studies, Madhulika served as a lab manager in the Evolutionary Social Psychology Lab at the University of Michigan. Her work has been recognized with awards such as the Best Student Presenter Award at the 2024 Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS) conference. She is also affiliated with the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making.
Dr. Daniel R. Kelly is a Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University, specializing in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and moral theory. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rutgers University and has been a faculty member at Purdue since 2007. Dr. Kelly’s research explores the interplay between human cognition and cultural evolution, focusing on topics such as moral judgment, social norms, and implicit bias. He is the author of Yuck! The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust and has published extensively in leading journals, including Philosophy Compass and Mind & Language. Dr. Kelly is a founding member of the Moral Psychology Research Group and has been involved with Purdue’s Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion. He has received multiple awards for his teaching and scholarship, including recognition as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He is one of three authors, along with Michael Brownstein and Alex Madva of Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change, which is forthcoming with MIT Press.
Dr. Brett Karlan is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton University in 2020, where his dissertation focused on rationality, reasoning, and human bias. Prior to joining Purdue, Dr. Karlan held postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University’s McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society and the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science. His research interests lie at the intersection of epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of cognitive science, with a particular focus on how contemporary cognitive science informs theories of rationality and mind. Dr. Karlan’s work has been published in leading journals, including the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Synthese, and the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence. He has also been involved in interdisciplinary projects funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, collaborating with experts in computer science, psychology, and artificial intelligence.
Dr. Taylor Davis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia, an M.A. in Philosophy from Tufts University, and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Georgia. Dr. Davis’s research focuses on the role of evolutionary theory, particularly cultural evolution, in explaining religion, morality, and norms. He joined Purdue in 2014 as part of the Building Sustainable Communities cluster hire, applying theories of norm evolution and psychology to sustainability norms. His work has been published in journals such as Nature Sustainability, Sustainability Science, and Philosophical Psychology. In addition to theoretical projects, Dr. Davis engages in empirical research, including studies in experimental philosophy. Beyond academia, he is a multi-instrumentalist musician, playing guitar, bass, drums, banjo, steel guitar, harmonica, and piano.
Dr. Evan Westra is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2017, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Carruthers. Prior to joining Purdue in 2022, Dr. Westra held postdoctoral positions at York University and the University of Toronto, and served as an instructor at the University of Rochester. His research focuses on the philosophy of social cognition, including topics such as theory of mind, character judgment, and the psychology of norms. He also has interests in the ethics of public discourse, the philosophy of animal minds and behavior, and the nature of mental representation. Dr. Westra’s work has been published in both philosophy and cognitive science journals, including Mind & Language, Cognition, Philosophy & Public Affairs, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Erkenntnis, Philosophical Studies, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Biology & Philosophy, Philosophical Psychology, Synthese, and the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. He is originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is the Chauncey Stillman Distinguished Professor of Practical Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He holds secondary appointments in the Law School and the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and is a core faculty member in the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. Dr. Sinnott-Armstrong’s research spans ethics, moral psychology, neuroscience, philosophy of law, and artificial intelligence. He has authored and edited numerous works, including Moral Skepticisms and the Moral Psychology volumes. His recent publications explore topics such as the neural basis of moral judgment and the implications of AI in ethical decision-making. Dr. Sinnott-Armstrong has received fellowships from institutions like the Harvard Program in Ethics and the Professions and the Princeton Center for Human Values. He is also co-director of the MADLab at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, focusing on moral artificial intelligence and decision-making.
Paul McKee is a Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University, co-mentored by Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Dr. Scott Huettel. He also holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Data Science from Duke. Paul’s research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying moral judgments, social decision-making, and motivation. He employs behavioral tasks, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to investigate these areas. His work has been published in journals such as Current Psychology and PLoS ONE. Before his academic career, Paul served as a Marine Corps Machine Gunner from 2013 to 2018 and earned a B.S. in Psychology from Southern Connecticut State University. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Beyond his research, Paul is committed to diversity and inclusion initiatives, serving as a mentor in programs like the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Internship and Project SHORT. He also established the Paul McKee Endowed Scholarship at Southern Connecticut State University to support interdisciplinary research among underrepresented and first-generation students.
Julia Banks is a graduate student in the Department of Philosophy at Duke University. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Lafayette College. Julia’s research interests encompass moral psychology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. She is particularly focused on exploring the intersections between ethical theory and cognitive processes, aiming to understand how moral judgments are formed and the role of mental states in ethical decision-making. At Duke, Julia is involved in interdisciplinary research that bridges philosophical inquiry with empirical findings from neuroscience and psychology. Her work contributes to a deeper understanding of the cognitive underpinnings of moral reasoning and ethical behavior.
Dr. Audun Dahl is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, where he directs the Developmental Moral Psychology Lab. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Dahl’s research focuses on the development of morality across the lifespan, examining how individuals reason, judge, feel, and act concerning issues of right and wrong. His work employs diverse methodologies, including laboratory experiments, naturalistic observations, structured interviews, and surveys, to study moral development from infancy through adulthood. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Dahl was a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research has been published in leading journals, including Child Development and Developmental Psychology. Dr. Dahl has received multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and has been recognized with awards such as the Early Career Research Contribution Award from the Society for Research in Child Development. He is also actively involved in mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, fostering the next generation of researchers in developmental psychology.
Iris Chung (MA) joined the MASC lab at PSU in 2023. She received her BA in psychology from the University of British Columbia and has an MA in cognitive psychology at Yonsei University. After pursuing a career in the skies as a cabin crew of Qatar Airways, Iris is now interested in prusuing questions related to moral psychology. Her current interests are focused on the dynamics of blame, praise, and free will. She is also interested in applying these concepts to artificial intelligence, especially in terms of the moral consciousness of AI as well as its human-likeness.
Sarah Mowrey joined the MASC lab at PSU in 2021 after receiving a BS in from Ohio State University in Psychology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Sarah is currently pursuing her PhD in social psychology and Social Data Analytics at Penn State University. They are interested in the way moral judgments affect interpersonal relationships, the connection between moral reasoning and values, and overall, the use of research to achieve social good. Sarah is currently involved in developing research regarding hypocrisy, person perception, and microaggressions.
Wiktoria M. Pedryc joined the MASC lab at Penn State as a PhD student in Fall 2024. After spending most of her life in Poland and attending an international United World College high school in Germany, she received her BA in psychology and philosophy from Lake Forest College in Illinois. During her time in college, she completed a semester in the MSc in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Human Sciences program at Università degli Studi di Pavia in Italy. Her research interests orient around moral psychology and legal decision-making incorporating methods and approaches from social cognitive psychology, experimental philosophy, and law. Currently, Wiktoria is interested in how people judge others’ intentionality, especially in cases of desired action and incognizant consequences. Wiktoria dedicates significant amount of her time to sexual misconduct prevention, which is a source of her motivation to conduct translational research allowing for practical applications in that domain of criminal justice system and preventative interventions. She is also interested in consequences of the arbitrary boundary of legal age of adulthood on people’s free will and responsibility judgements of adolescents as compared to young adults.