~ The Moral Lab ~
Bell Building, St. Phillips
Street
Room 221/222
wrightjj1 @ cofc . edu
I am always on
the look out for good research assistants
Anyone interested in getting involved in my research lab is welcome to contact me: wrightlab @ cofc . edu.
RESEARCH INTERESTS I am fascinated by how people of all ages experience, think about, and navigate what I call the "moral landscape". I call it this because it of the way our social/moral values, norms, and beliefs structure the social space we move through, much like the physical features around us structure the physical space we move through. This interest has led to a variety of research projects, investigating:
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CURRENT LAB ACTIVITIES 2012-2013 - Research projects:
Moral Foundation Personality Inventory 2011-2012 - Research projects:
Motivated moral perception: Do
our moral judgments influence where we look? (cont'd) 2010-2011 - Research projects:
Moral Foundations --
Individualizing vs. Binding Foundations
2009-2010 - Research
projects:
Pretend Play as a Medium
for Early Moral Development: We are investigating
pretend play as a medium for moral exploration in young
children (ages 2-6 years old).
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Do
No Evil: We are
using eye-tracking technology to study the relationship
between people's visual attention to (and avoidance
of) morally relevant stimuli and their moral
judgments/attitudes about a variety of scenarios.
Specifically, we are interested in if what people attend
to predicts the sorts of moral judgments they form, as
well as whether they will avoid attending to morally
relevant information that is inconsistent with their
extant moral attitudes. Other ongoing studies: Perceptions of Social Status research: Do people's perception of social status influence their moral judgments -- their judgments of fairness, blameworthiness, etc.? We are currently investigating this question in adults and adolescents.
In particular, we are conducting research on how
adolescents think about a variety of social
relationships and interactions.
Our goal is to develop a better
understanding of how adolescents of different ages
perceive differences in social status and how those
perceptions influence their interpretation of a range of
social relationships and their judgments about positive
and negative social interactions. We are also exploring the contextual and cognitive specifics underlying people’s meta-ethical commitments. Young Children's Use of Moral Evaluatives: What sorts of moral concepts do young children use to talk about moral issues with their parents? Past research suggest that while they employ "good" and "bad" to discuss moral issues frequently, they rarely (if ever) employ "right" and "wrong". We are currently exploring this finding in greater depth in samples of both American and British children. The Moral Suspiciousness of the Atheist: We are studying how people's moral judgments about a person's good and bad actions vary on the basis of that person's religious or non-religious beliefs. |
Current Lab Conference Presentations
Past Lab Conference Presentations
Current Bachelor's Essays & Independent Studies
(BEIS) Projects
Current Volunteer Research Assistants
Noteworthy Past Research Assistants (University of Wyoming) |