Behavioural Ethics, Affect and Meaning Lab
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Laboratory Director
Prof Brock Bastian+61 3 83448880
Research Overview
The BEAM lab is focused on examining motivational and affective processes involved in ethical decision-making and behavior, how people regulate and respond to negative experiences, and determinants and consequences of living a meaningful life.
Staff
Brodie Dakin, Ph.D. studentBrodie Dakin
Brodie Dakin is a Ph.D. student exploring the intersection between meaning and morality. Specifically, he is studying how the search for meaning and presence of meaning in one’s life differentially predict inclination toward costly prosocial behaviour.
Christoph Klebl, Ph.D. studentChristoph Klebl
Christoph Klebl is a Ph.D. student studying moral emotions. His interests include the influence of positive emotions such as awe and elevation on moral concern and moral judgment, as well as beauty and the emotional experience associated with it.
Jack Klein, Ph.D. studentJack Klein
Jack Klein is a PhD student interested in identity fusion, an intense form of alignment that empowers members to fight and die for the group. Specifically, he is examining the under-researched process of defusion, in which fused members are decoupled from the group.
Melanie McGrath, Ph.D. studentMelanie McGrath
Melanie McGrath is a Ph.D. student studying the semantic expansion of harm-based psychological concepts such as prejudice, bullying, trauma, and mental disorder. Her research is focused on modelling individual differences in understandings of these concepts. Melanie is primarily supervised by Professor Nick Haslam, and co-supervised by Associate Professor Brock Bastian.
Josh Rhee, Ph.D. studentJosh Rhee
Josh Rhee is a Ph.D. student researching how and when everyday non-moral ideas may come to gain moral significance. He is particularly interested in the influence of intergroup conflicts, and challenges to people’s existing assumptions about the world, in bringing about increasingly moralized thinking.
Ji Young Song, Ph.D. studentJi Young Song
Ji Young Song is a Ph.D. student studying the relationship between moral emotions, the Self, and moral reasoning. In particular, he is interested in how affective states, such as awe and self-transcendence, can change the way the Self is understood in relation to the broader environment, and how this can change moral reasoning.
Nicholas Tan, Ph.D. studentNicholas Tan
Nicholas Tan is a Ph.D. student exploring individual differences in the obfuscation of morally questionable behaviours. Specifically, his research focuses on applying the Big Five Personality trait model to describe differences in the psychological processes employed to facilitate meat consumption. He is primarily supervised by Associate Professor Luke Smillie, and co-supervised by Associate Professor Brock Bastian.
Past Ph.D. Students
Khandis Blake
Daniel Crimston
Laura Ferris
Ali Teymoori