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Modern moral psychology: An introduction to the terrainIn Bertram Malle & Philip Robbins (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Moral Psychology, Cambridge University Press. forthcoming.
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22The Cambridge Handbook of Moral Psychology (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2021.Moral psychology—broadly speaking, the study of how people reason and act morally—has a long and productive history. Initially a subfield of philosophy, it posed groundbreaking questions about the nature of values and virtues, the balance of reason and emotion, and the gap between “is” and “ought.” In the twentieth century, the rise of psychology expanded the a priori philosophical enterprise into an empirical science. In psychology, perspectives of development, social interaction, cognition, an…Read more
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3Intentional Action in Folk PsychologyIn Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: What Intentional Action Is The Folk Concept of Intentionality Development The Judgment Process Intentionality and Moral Judgment Explanations of Intentional Action Reason Explanations Causal History of Reason Explanations Enabling Factor Explanations Synopsis References Further reading.
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8The now and future of social robots as depictionsBehavioral and Brain Sciences 46. 2023.The authors at times propose that robots are mere depictions of social agents (a philosophical claim) and at other times that people conceive of social robots as depictions (an empirical psychological claim). We evaluate each claim's accuracy both now and in the future and, in doing so, we introduce two dangerous misperceptions people have, or will have, about social robots.
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26Robotics and Well-Being (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2019.This book highlights some of the most pressing safety, ethical, legal and societal issues related to the diverse contexts in which robotic technologies apply. Focusing on the essential concept of well-being, it addresses topics that are fundamental not only for research, but also for industry and end-users, discussing the challenges in a wide variety of applications, including domestic robots, autonomous manufacturing, personal care robots and drones.
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19Spontaneous perspective taking toward robots: The unique impact of humanlike appearanceCognition 224 (C): 105076. 2022.
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42AI in the Sky: How People Morally Evaluate Human and Machine Decisions in a Lethal Strike DilemmaIn Maria Isabel Aldinhas Ferreira, João Silva Sequeira, Gurvinder Singh Virk, Mohammad Osman Tokhi & Endre E. Kadar (eds.), Robotics and Well-Being, Springer Verlag. pp. 111-133. 2019.Even though morally competent artificial agents have yet to emerge in society, we need insights from empirical science into how people will respond to such agents and how these responses should inform agent design. Three survey studies presented participants with an artificial intelligence agent, an autonomous drone, or a human drone pilot facing a moral dilemma in a military context: to either launch a missile strike on a terrorist compound but risk the life of a child, or to cancel the strike …Read more
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24Folk theories of consciousnessIn William P. Banks (ed.), Encyclopedia of Consciousness, Elsevier. pp. 251-263. 2009.People’s folk theory of consciousness encompasses three prototypes of conscious mental functioning: monitoring (awareness), choice, and subjective experience. All three are embedded in a broader folk theory of mind and thus closely linked to the concept of intentionality, action explanation, and a conception of free will. At least some of the prototypes of consciousness play a critical role in the assignment of personhood and responsibility. Recent discussions question the viability of folk conc…Read more
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13This Isn’t the Free Will Worth Looking For: General Free Will Beliefs Do Not Influence Moral Judgments, Agent-Specific Choice Ascriptions DoSocial Psychological and Personality Science 8 (2): 191-199. 2016.According to previous research, threatening people’s belief in free will may undermine moral judgments and behavior. Four studies tested this claim. Study 1 used a Velten technique to threaten people’s belief in free will and found no effects on moral behavior, judgments of blame, and punishment decisions. Study 2 used six different threats to free will and failed to find effects on judgments of blame and wrongness. Study 3 found no effects on moral judgment when manipulating general free will b…Read more
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10Directions and Challenges in Studying Folk Concepts and Folk JudgmentsJournal of Cognition and Culture 6 (1-2): 321-329. 2006.
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45The relationship between joint attention and theory of mind in neurotypical adultsConsciousness and Cognition 51 268-278. 2017.Joint attention (JA) is hypothesized to have a close relationship with developing theory of mind (ToM) capabilities. We tested the co-occurrence of ToM and JA in social interactions between adults with no reported history of psychiatric illness or neurodevelopmental disorders. Participants engaged in an experimental task that encouraged nonverbal communication, including JA, and also ToM activity. We adapted an in-lab variant of experience sampling methods (Bryant, Coffey, Povinelli, & Pruett, 2…Read more
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76Attribution theory has played a major role in social-psychological research. Unfortunately, the term attribution is ambiguous. According to one meaning, forming an attribution is making a dispositional (trait) inference from behavior; according to another meaning, forming an attribution is giving an explanation (especially of behavior). The focus of this paper is on the latter phenomenon of behavior explanations. In particular, I discuss a new theory of explanation that provides an alternative t…Read more
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32Distinguishing Hope from Optimism and Related Affective StatesMotivation and Emotion 29 (4): 324--352. 2006.
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60Bringing free will down to Earth: People’s psychological concept of free will and its role in moral judgmentConsciousness and Cognition 27 100-108. 2014.
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215Folk Theory of Mind: Conceptual Foundations of Human Social CognitionIn Ran R. Hassin, James S. Uleman & John A. Bargh (eds.), The New Unconscious. Oxford Series in Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience, Oxford University Press. pp. 225-255. 2005.The human ability to represent, conceptualize, and reason about mind and behavior is one of the greatest achievements of human evolution and is made possible by a “folk theory of mind” — a sophisticated conceptual framework that relates different mental states to each other and connects them to behavior. This chapter examines the nature and elements of this framework and its central functions for social cognition. As a conceptual framework, the folk theory of mind operates prior to any particula…Read more
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445Self and other in the explanation of behavior: 30 years laterPsychologica Belgica 42 113-130. 2002.It has been hypothesized that actors tend to attribute behavior to the situation whereas observers tend to attribute behavior to the person (Jones & Nisbett 1972). The authors argue that this simple hypothesis fails to capture the complexity of actual actor-observer differences in people’s behavioral explanations. A new framework is proposed in which reason explanations are distinguished from explanations that cite causes, especially stable traits. With this framework in place, it becomes possib…Read more
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19Three puzzles of mindreadingIn B. Malle & S. Hodges (eds.), Other Minds: How Humans Bridge the Gap Between Self and Others, Guilford Press. pp. 26--43. 2005.
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13Intentional action in folk psychologyIn Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Action, Blackwell. 2010.
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69Are intentionality judgments fundamentally moralIn Robyn Langdon & Catriona Mackenzie (eds.), Emotions, Imagination, and Moral Reasoning, Psychology Press. 2012.
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132At the Heart of Morality Lies Folk PsychologyInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 52 (5): 449-466. 2009.Moral judgments about an agent's behavior are enmeshed with inferences about the agent's mind. Folk psychology—the system that enables such inferences—therefore lies at the heart of moral judgment. We examine three related folk-psychological concepts that together shape people's judgments of blame: intentionality, choice, and free will. We discuss people's understanding and use of these concepts, address recent findings that challenge the autonomous role of these concepts in moral judgment, and …Read more
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269From Uncaused Will to Conscious Choice: The Need to Study, Not Speculate About People’s Folk Concept of Free WillReview of Philosophy and Psychology 1 (2): 211-224. 2010.People’s concept of free will is often assumed to be incompatible with the deterministic, scientific model of the universe. Indeed, many scholars treat the folk concept of free will as assuming a special form of nondeterministic causation, possibly the notion of uncaused causes. However, little work to date has directly probed individuals’ beliefs about what it means to have free will. The present studies sought to reconstruct this folk concept of free will by asking people to define the concept…Read more
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60Other Minds: How Humans Bridge the Gap Between Self and Others (edited book)Guilford. 2005.Leading scholars from psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy present theories and findings on understanding how individuals infer such complex mental states ...
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327Folk theory of mind: Conceptual foundations of social cognitionIn R. Hassin, J. S. Uleman & J. A. Bargh (eds.), [Book Chapter], Oxford University Press. pp. 225-255. 2005.The human ability to represent, conceptualize, and reason about mind and behavior is one of the greatest achievements of human evolution and is made possible by a “folk theory of mind” — a sophisticated conceptual framework that relates different mental states to each other and connects them to behavior. This chapter examines the nature and elements of this framework and its central functions for social cognition. As a conceptual framework, the folk theory of mind operates prior to any particula…Read more
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121The folk concept of intentionalityJournal of Experimental Social Psychology 33 101-121. 1997.When perceiving, explaining, or criticizing human behavior, people distinguish between intentional and unintentional actions. To do so, they rely on a shared folk concept of intentionality. In contrast to past speculative models, this article provides an empirically-based model of this concept. Study 1 demonstrates that people agree substantially in their judgments of intentionality, suggesting a shared underlying concept. Study 2 reveals that when asked to directly define the term intentional, …Read more
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44Intentionality, Morality, and Their Relationship in Human JudgmentJournal of Cognition and Culture 6 (1-2): 61-86. 2006.This article explores several entanglements between human judgments of intentionality and morality (blame and praise). After proposing a model of people’s folk concept of intentionality I discuss three topics. First, considerations of a behavior’s intentionality a ff ect people’s praise and blame of that behavior, but one study suggests that there may be an asymmetry such that blame is more affected than praise. Second, the concept of intentionality is constitutive of many legal judgments (e.g., o…Read more
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183Integrating robot ethics and machine morality: the study and design of moral competence in robotsEthics and Information Technology 18 (4): 243-256. 2016.Robot ethics encompasses ethical questions about how humans should design, deploy, and treat robots; machine morality encompasses questions about what moral capacities a robot should have and how these capacities could be computationally implemented. Publications on both of these topics have doubled twice in the past 10 years but have often remained separate from one another. In an attempt to better integrate the two, I offer a framework for what a morally competent robot would look like and dis…Read more
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Attribution processesIn N. J. Smelser & B. Baltes (eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, . pp. 14--913. 2001.
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83Can Unintended Side Effects be Intentional? Resolving a Controversy Over Intentionality and MoralityPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36 1635-1647. 2010.Can an event’s blameworthiness distort whether people see it as intentional? In controversial recent studies, people judged a behavior’s negative side effect intentional even though the agent allegedly had no desire for it to occur. Such a judgment contradicts the standard assumption that desire is a necessary condition of intentionality, and it raises concerns about assessments of intentionality in legal settings. Six studies examined whether blameworthy events distort intentionality judgments.…Read more
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82A Strawsonian look at desertPhilosophical Explorations 16 (2): 133-152. 2013.P.F. Strawson famously argued that reactive attitudes and ordinary moral practices justify moral assessments of blame, praise, and punishment. Here we consider whether Strawson's approach can illuminate the concept of desert. After reviewing standard attempts to analyze this concept and finding them lacking, we suggest that to deserve something is to justifiably receive a moral assessment in light of certain criteria – in particular, eligibility criteria (a subject's properties that make the sub…Read more
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Brown UniversityRegular Faculty
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Mind |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Mind |