Empathy, or the ability to resonate with and understand others’ experiences, has been considered a focal force in ethical life. Yet we often see that it can fade in many important and challenging situations, whether those involve mass suffering and disasters, or stigmatization of opponents or out-groups. Is empathy fundamentally biased and limited in its ability to be a moral compass? Or do such fades reflect our own motivated and strategic choices to regulate our emotions based on anticipated costs and benefits?
In this talk, I will suggest that the latter, motivated empathy regulation perspective can help to understand empathy’s role in social life. I’ll briefly outline this perspective and the methodologies my lab has developed to study these questions. I’ll also discuss applications to studying questions of prosocial engagement, and how we interact with animals, AI, and different partisan groups.
After that, I will highlight some of the work that I’m doing in the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making here at Penn State to bring together interdisciplinary teams of researchers — at and beyond Penn State — to study ethical and moral decision-making in a robust and impactful way.
About the Speaker
Dr. Cameron investigates the psychological processes involved in empathy and moral decision-making, using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on affective science, social cognition, and moral philosophy. In much of his research, he examines motivational and situational factors that shape empathic emotions and behaviors toward others. In other research, he uses implicit measurement and mathematical modeling to assess empathy and moral judgment in healthy, clinical, and incarcerated populations. To learn more about his research, please visit the Empathy and Moral Psychology Lab web page.
Dr. Cameron is a Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute for 2023-2026. Additionally, he is a Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute.
Dr. Cameron also directs the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making, an interdisciplinary network of scholars who study empathy and moral decisions.
