Research Interests
Why and how are people motivated to contribute to their environments constructively versus destructively? What makes some people want to commit genocide, and others to save the world? How is moral judgment involved in this process?
These questions are at the heart of social psychological research and require rigorous examination of affective and cognitive process such as empathy and compassion. Specific questions I am currently exploring/interested in exploring further include (but are not limited to):
Empathy and Prosocial Emotions
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When does empathy fail and how can we use motivation to understand such failures?
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Does motivated empathy shape perceptions and judgments of one's environment?
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Can meaning-making act as a buffer against perceived costs of empathy and compassion?
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Can similarity of adverse life experience overcome intergroup failures of empathy?
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How do we prioritize certain modes of helping over others?
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Can the process of exerting effort towards prosocial means, itself, be seen as a moral signal of value?
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What kinds of moral judgments are involved when evaluating extreme prosociality? (e.g. “do-gooders”, “moral outliers”, or “activists”)
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Are these judgments negatively valenced when there’s evident lack of meaning between one’s lived experiences and one's prosocial behavior?
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Could norms of self-interest deter prosociality?
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Which contexts motivate primarily prescriptive (as opposed to proscriptive) judgments?
Moral Judgment
