Polarization and Morality

Polarization and Morality

How does political polarization influence our moral reasoning and moral emotions (e.g., empathy, outrage)? In an increasingly polarized society, research examining polarization and its relationship to morality is more pertinent than ever before. Topics under this topic include examining causes of polarization, its consequences, interventions to reduce polarization, as well as manifestations of polarization in different applied contexts. This research looks at topics including education, partisanship, the role of media and cultural norms.

In April 2025, we hosted a hybrid interdisciplinary conference on political divisions and morality. For more on that event, see here. Archived videos from that conference can be seen on the Events page.

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Related Media

Dr. Cameron Talks about Empathy on Maine Calling
July 2025

This summer, Dr. Cameron was invited to talk about empathy in a panel discussion on Maine Calling, a live show on Maine Public Radio. Check out the audio to listen to the wide-ranging conversation that goes into how empathy can unfold in moral, political, and social life.

Dr. Cameron Leads PRC Seminar on “Empathic Choices and Interdisciplinary Moral Psychology”
April 2025

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.

Political Polarization Hack-a-Thon
April 2024

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.

Civic Education for a Serious People
November 2023

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
October 2023

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.

Consortium to present seed grant recipients
Blog Post on Moral Psychology by Clara Civiero

Check out Consortium RA Clara Civiero’s blog post on why she’s interested in the social scientific study of morality, empathy, and ethics.

Interdisciplinary research on ethics and morality focus of recent conference
Seed Grant Request for Proposals Re-Opened
Political Morality Conference to be Held at Penn State
Highlights from Political Divisions Conference

On April 25, the Consortium hosted an interdisciplinary conference on political divisions and morality, with scholars both in person and on Zoom from around the world, from psychology, political science, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, communications, and media studies. Here are some of the photo highlights. For more about the event, see the conference program on the Events page which has details about the speakers, their titles and abstracts, and their views on the puzzles and potential for bringing together researchers across disciplines to understand political morality.

Conference on Political Divisions Draws International Presenters
Dr. Cameron on WPSU Reach Podcast on Empathy

Dr. Cameron discussed empathy on WPSU, our local NPR station.