People
Lab Director
C. Daryl Cameron, Ph.D.
Joyce L. and Douglas S. Sherwin Early Career Professor in Rock Ethics Institute, Associate Professor of Psychology, Senior Research Associate in Rock Ethics Institute
cdc49 (at) psu.edu
Research Staff
Donald Veglia
Research Assistant
Quantitative sciences, behavioral neuroscience, abnormal psychology
Graduate Students
Joshua Wenger, B.S.
Graduate Student
Moral psychology of AI, self-transcendent emotions, and moral judgment
Faruk Yalçin, M.S.
Graduate Student
Role of empathy in moral judgment, and how moral outrage shapes information-seeking
Graduate Affiliates
Becca Ruger
The formation of moral judgements, particularly relevant to everyday actions and inactions
Vani Gupta
Neuroscience of mindfulness and empathy through decision making, across different developmental periods
Ian Rowe-Nicholls
Sociological approaches to compassion and prosocial behavior
Iris Chung
Blame judgments, morality of AI
Maryam Amini
Empathy and patient-clinician interactions, social neuroscience
Wiktoria Pedryc
Intentionality and free will judgments, sexual misconduct prevention
Rock Ethics Institute Fellow
Dana Abdul Malak
Empathy, medicine, and morality
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Rachel Buterbaugh
Senior Research Assistant
Social cognitive approaches to analyzing empathy and moral perception of behavior
Jessica Firestone
Political philosophy and state ethical decision-making
Skylar Cui
The influence of morality on decision-making across cultures
Hope Butler
Patterns of behavior, intersection of societal and personal beliefs, influence of morality on decision making
Mingxi Gao
Moral motivation and development, decision making at different ages, positive psychology
Greg McLauchlan
Social psychology, sociology, and quantitative studies
Audrey Cressler
Impact of morality & cultural fit on life satisfaction; Religious trauma & value development; Literature and empathy; Impact of media on moral & emotional exhaustion
Mariam Suliman
Empathy within in-groups versus out-groups, morality’s origins within the body (heart or head)
Emily Canavan
Intersection of cognitive psychology, social psychology, and sociology
Alexandra Lucchese
Moral, developmental, and gender psychology
Macy Seymour
Intersections between psychology and criminology
Kacy Landis
Clinical and cognitive psychology, moral psychology, influence of decision-making while dealing with mental illness
Lab Mascots
Tasha Cameron
Forest Cat-alaureate Research Associate
Schadenfreude, cat-passion, judgment
Lab Alumni
Clara Civiero, B.A.
EMP Lab & Consortium on Moral Decision-Making RA, 2023-2024
Moral decision making in legal and business contexts, ethical leadership, empathy and its role in prosocial behaviour, and the intersection between morality and religious belief
Eliana Hadjiandreou, Ph.D.
Graduate Student Alumni, Class of 2024
Emotional and cognitive motivations, decision-making surrounding empathy and altruism
Stephen Anderson, Ph.D.
Graduate Student Alumni, Class of 2024
Intersection of morality and mental simulation, particularly in regards to empathy
India Oates, B.S. & B.A.
Human Research Technologist, 2021-2023
Outcomes of discrimination, perceptions and construction of out-group bias, dehumanization and stereotyping (now grad student at Chicago School of Professional Psychology)
Martina Orlandi, Ph.D.
Post-Doc Alumni, 2021-2022
Philosophy of action, moral psychology, self-control and self-deception, public philosophy (now assistant professor at Trent University)
Julian A. Scheffer, Ph.D.
Graduate Student Alumni, Class of 2021
Empathy regulation, moral behavior and judgment, effort-based decision making, social neuroscience (now post-doc at UC Berkeley, will start at University of Western Ontario as assistant professor in 2024)
Victoria Spring, Ph.D.
Graduate Student Alumni, Class of 2020
How individual, group, and situational factors influence perception of social emotions (went to post-doc at NYU)
Daniel Lim, Ph.D.
Post-Doc Alumni, 2018-2020
How adversity shapes empathy and prosocial behavior (now assistant professor at Adelphi University)
Melody Munitz, B.A.
Honors Student Alumni, Class of 2022
The role of empathy in the arts, cognitive and affective empathy discrepancies
Michael Pasek, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni
Consequences of stigma and prejudice as they affect various social identities, interventions to buffer individuals from prejudice
Nathaniel Geiger, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni
Engagement with climate change and social psychological factors that lead individuals to take action
Sinhae Cho, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni
Natalia Van Doren, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni
Danfei Hu, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni
Cognitive and motivational components of emotional processing and emotion regulation
Mike Lengieza, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni
Alison Schreiber, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni
Neurocomputational mechanisms of social decision-making and how personality modulates these processes
Jason Williamson, Ph.D.
Graduate Affiliate Alumni