Researching

In general, I am interested in psychological, historical, and philosophical approaches to understanding ethics and religion/spirituality. In particular, I am interested in how to influence the development of moral beliefs, feelings, and behaviors, especially through educational interventions.  As a harm-theorist, I hypothesize that moral judgments and moral emotions basically depend on harm perception. As an educational researcher, I am interested in learning how educators can shape moral judgments and moral emotions, and ultimately moral identity, by teaching students how to perceive harm. For example, this can involve providing them with information about harmful events, or philosophically exploring the concept of harm with them.  

Philosophically, I believe suffering is universally bad and that we ought to reduce suffering in the world. I hope that my research helps reduce suffering in the world.

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 indirectly in specific ways (e.g. eating meat and by using disposable plastic), and how to change these thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by framing animals as having minds with more or less agentic qualities (e.g. intelligence, free-will).

For my M.S. in Digital Media at the Georgia Institute of Technology, I researched how digital artifacts, like online petitions, are used rhetorically and how they might be redesigned to better communicate and address perceived injustices.

Research Interests

  • Moral Psychology and Descriptive Ethics
    • Moral Motivation
      • Moral Identity
      • Moral Disengagement
      • Moral Judgements and Moral Emotions
    • Food Ethics & 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 (e.g., for food, sport)
      • Relationship between Mind Perception of Animals and Moral Motivation to Harm Animals
    • Intersection with Educational Psychology
      • Teaching Philosophy/Ethics
      • Moral/Character Education
      • Moral Development
    • Research Ethics
      • Interpretations and Implementation of Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity
      • Accidental Plagiarism of Research Software
      • Design & Evaluation of Scientific Integrity Training
  • Psychology of Religion and Religious Studies
    • Monasticism
      • Order/Rhythm of Life on Attention
      • Mendicacy and Voluntary Poverty
    • Quakerism
      • Silent Worship
    • Unitarian-Universalism
      • Pluralism
    • Buddhist Psychology
      • Brahmavihara
        • Loving-Kindness
        • Compassion
        • Empathetic Joy
        • Equanimity
    • Animism
      • Panpsychism

Research Methods

  • Online Experiments
  • Survey
  • Ethnography
  • Interviews
  • Historical Research

Publications

My ORCID is https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1822-6756.

You can find a list my research publications here.

  • 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.