Research

While earning my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Applied Cognition and Development) at the University of Georgia, I researched how people think and feel about harming animals in specific ways (e.g. eating meat), and how to change these thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.  I am also interested in researching how digital media and educational technologies influence moral education through harm perception.

Research Interests

• Moral Psychology and Moral Education about Animal Ethics
  • Folk Beliefs about Animal Minds (Mind Perception of Animals)
  • Moral Judgements and Moral Emotions (e.g. guilt) about Harming Animals
  • Rationalizations for Harming Animals
  • Relationship between Mind Perception of Animals and Moral Motivation to Harm Animals
• Moral Education through Digital Media and Educational Technologies
  • Design Strategies for Influencing Moral Attitudes Through Harm Perception
  • Hiding Harm through Dark Patterns

Research Methods

• Online Experiments
• Ethnography

Current Projects

• Animal Welfare Ontology
  • I am starting to design an ontology for animal welfare so that farmers and food companies can have a standard schema for sharing information about animal welfare data during the food production process.

Past Projects

• Doctoral Dissertation
  • The Influence of Beliefs about Animal Agency on Moral Judgments about Harming Animals I researched how beliefs about the minds of animals influence moral concern for harming them in terms of moral judgments, feelings of guilt, and behavioral intentions.
• Masters Thesis

  • We the undersigned: anonymous dissent and the struggle for personal identity in online petitions I researched how online petitions functioned rhetorically.