Welcome to the Empathy and Moral Psychology (EMP) Lab at Penn State University, directed by Dr. Daryl Cameron. We study the affective and motivational mechanisms involved in empathy and moral decision-making. Our lab utilizes insights and methodologies from affective science, social cognition, and moral philosophy, in order to understand how people think about and respond to pressing social and ethical situations.
Some of the particular questions we focus on include why does empathy fail in response to mass suffering and during conflicts, and what can we do about it? Why do people engage in blame and punishment, and how does outrage motivate people to engage in collective action? For short and accessible introductions to our work, check out the Penn State Research article on our approach to motivated empathy, the release about our work on empathy avoidance and mental effort, the Penn State News article about our work on moral outrage, and the article in the The Conversation about the scientific and ethical ramifications of empathy deficits. Dr. Cameron wrote about empathy and politics for the Rock Ethics Institute’s “Ask an Ethicist” column, “How important is empathy in the U.S. Presidential election?” The lab recently published a blog post about moral emotions and COVID-19 for the Social Science Research Institute’s “Insights from Experts” webpage.
We also provide students with interdisciplinary research opportunities through the Rock Ethics Institute. Through the Rock, we have organized several collaborative workshops and outreach events, including invited talks and conferences (such as the Moral Psychology Research Group conference in 2017), and the Expanding Empathy Speaker Series which has been running since 2019. Moving forward, Dr. Cameron is directing the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making, an interdisciplinary network designed to encourage collaborations across the social sciences and humanities on topics related to moral and ethical decision-making. For more details about these opportunities, please see the “Collaborations” tab above, and feel free to reach out to learn more!
Stephen Anderson Takes Marketing Position
Stephen Anderson, who graduated from the EMP Lab in spring 2024, has taken a position as Senior Manager in Marketing Science at Coherency (https://coherency.com/). Congratulations, Stephen!
Clara Civiero & Lauren O’Rourke to Start PhD Programs
Clara Civiero (left) has been a post-baccalaureate RA for the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making this year, helping with team logistics & excelling as a culture-builder in the EMP Lab. She's starting her Social Psych PhD at Rutgers this fall--congrats, Clara!...
Joshua Wenger Receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Joshua Wenger, a first-year graduate student in the EMP Lab, has learned that he has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which will support his research and training for the next several years. He will have the chance to continue...
Eliana Hadjiandreou Defends Dissertation, Starts New Post Doc at UT Austin
Eliana Hadjiandreou, one of the lab’s senior graduate students, successfully defended her dissertation in February, on motivation and the shape of the moral circle for self and others. Excellent work, Dr. Hadjiandreou! And good luck in your new post-doctoral position...
New Lab Paper on AI Empathy in TICS
Dr. Cameron has published a paper (with Michael Inzlicht, philosopher Jason D'Cruz, and Paul Bloom), "In praise of empathic AI", in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. To read more, check out the pre-print: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/py8tv
EMP Lab Goes Bowling for Winter Social
Many of the members of the EMP Lab attended our first winter social event in several years, trying our hands at bowling. It was Faruk's first bowl! The lab abides.
Stephen Anderson Defends Dissertation!
Stephen Anderson, one of the lab's senior graduate students, successfully defended his dissertation earlier this month, on second-hand empathy and moralization. Excellent work, Dr. Anderson!
Dr. Cameron Receives SSRI Level 4 Grant for Consortium on Moral Decision-Making
Dr. Cameron (with Dr. Andrew High from Communication Arts and Sciences) has received a Level 4 Interdisciplinary Research Initiative Grant (https://ssri.psu.edu/funding/ssri-level-4-interdisciplinary-research-initiative) from the Social Science Research Institute...
Dr. Cameron Named SPSP Fellow
Dr. Cameron has been named a Fellow in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, for making significant contributions to the field. More details about the 2023 Fellows are here.
Welcome to Josh, Faruk, and Clara!
The EMP Lab recently had a get together prior to the start of the Fall 2023 semester. A warm welcome to two incoming graduate students Josh Wenger and Faruk Yalcin, along with EMP Lab / Consortium research assistant Clara Civiero!
Story about Dr. Cameron’s Cattell Sabbatical Fellowship
Penn State News released a story about Dr. Cameron's Cattell Fund Sabbatical Fellowship, which will allow him to take the full 2023-2024 academic year to go on sabbatical. For more, read here:...
Stephen Anderson Publishes Creative Empathy Paper
Graduate student Stephen Anderson has recently published his paper "Creative empathy", an interdisciplinary collaboration with Dr. Daryl Cameron and Dr. Roger Beaty (in Cognitive Psychology). This work includes and builds from Stephen's master's thesis studies, and...
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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Stephen Anderson, Ph.D.
Graduate Student
Stephen is a graduate student in the EMP Lab. He applies quantitative, experimental, survey, and behavioral methods to study empathy. His work is often interdisciplinary, and draws upon a diverse set of topics – such as morality, the self, creativity, and imagination – to study how people think about the internal experiences of others. Prior to joining the EMP Lab, Stephen managed Kurt Gray’s Mind Perception and Morality lab at the University of North Carolina and conducted research on ethical judgments in Christopher Chabris’ and Michelle Meyer’s behavioral science lab at Geisinger Health System. He received his B.S. in Psychology and Music from Allegheny College in 2016 and his M.S. in Psychology from Penn State in 2020. Stephen’s dissertation work on how empathy contributes to moral attitudes is currently supported by the Delbert F. and Marie S. Welch Graduate Fellowship.
Eliana Hadjiandreou, M.S.
Graduate Student
Eliana is a 6th-year graduate student in the EMP Lab. Her work broadly studies how we perceive others’ empathy and altruism, with a particular interest on how such perceptions and norms can affect our willingness to include others in our moral circles and engage in dialogue across different group divides. Eliana’s work on beliefs about the origins of political affiliation has been previously funded by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy through a Democracy Grant, and is in active collaboration with the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding at UNC Chapel Hill, where Eliana is currently a student affiliate. Eliana’s dissertation work on perceptions of moral expansiveness is supported by the Forrest S. Crawford Graduate Fellowship in Ethical Inquiry through the Rock Ethics Institute for the 2022-2023 academic year.
