September 2018. Moral elevation is the feeling that results when observing another person engaging in exceptionally moral (e.g., selfless) behaviour. People usually report feeling inspired and uplifted, and we previously showed that these feelings lead to increased helping (Schnall, Fessler & Roper, 2010; Schnall & Roper, 2012). Our latest paper investigated the complex interplay of … More New Paper: Averting Gaze Facilitates Moral Construals Via Posteromedial Activations

August 2018. In a new paper we show that seemingly conflicting results on motivated distance perception can be explained by taking into account the role of affect. More specifically, there have been two sets of findings on distance perception to rewards. On the one hand, Balcetis & Dunning (2010) found that approaching positive objects makes … More New Paper: Affect Explains Conflicting Findings on Motivated Perception

July 2018. The latest paper with Konrad Bocian, Wieslaw Baryla, Wojciech Kulseza and Bogdan Wojciszke just came out at the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. We found that beliefs of self-other similarity, mere exposure, and facial mimicry influenced judgments of moral character measured in various ways. These effects were mediated by changes in liking of … More New Paper: Attitudes Influence Moral Character Evaluations

June 2018. A new paper with Philippe Gilchrist is now in press at the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. We found that rather than alleviating feelings of contamination, physical self-cleansing led to more contamination concerns and guilt when in the context of activated obsessive-type cognitions, possibly because it paradoxically makes cleanliness goals salient. … More New Paper: Physical Cleansing Increases Contamination Concerns

March 2018. Our latest paper was just accepted for publication at the Journal of Risk Research. We find that disgust sensitivity involves general risk avoidance, not just for disease: People high disgust sensitivity perceived greater risk than those who are low with respect to various risks, including recreational, social and financial risks. Congratulations to Simon … More New Paper: Disgust Sensitivity and Risk Perception

February 2018. Two students who applied to the lab were appointed as Gates Scholars to do their PhD degrees. This is a great success for the lab given that from over 800 applications only 35 such awards were given across entirely university! Rob Henderson will join from Yale, where he works with Paul Bloom. Rob … More Steve Rathje and Rob Henderson Appointed as PhD Gates Scholars

January 2018. Our latest theoretical perspective on morality, entitled ‘The moralization of the body: Protecting and expanding the boundaries of the self’, appeared in the Atlas of Moral Psychology, edited by Jesse Graham and Kurt Grey. The book pulls together most contemporary perspectives on the topic, including those involving debates and controversies. Order your copy … More New Chapter in Atlas of Moral Psychology