Moral Psychology Laboratory

Research Overview

The Moral Psychology Lab is dedicated to understanding the psychological bases of moral and ethical judgement, decision-making and behaviour. We draw upon social and cognitive psychology to explore the nature of morality and sociality, how people make moral judgements, biases inherent in ethical decision making, and factors that shape ethical reflection and behaviour. By better understanding how moral decisions and behaviours unfold, we hope to offer insight into ways of improving ethical decision-making in public and private life.

Staff

Current PhD students

(*indicates primary affiliation with this lab)
* Shaheed Azaad
* Damien Crone
* Michael Susman
* Ravini Abeywickrama
* Manuel Rengifo
* Fabricio Chagas-Bastos
* Garth Warren
* Michael Donner

Sarah Bonnell
Erin Lawn
Brodie Dakin
Milan Andrejevic

Past PhD students

Caitlin McCurrie, Kanishka Karunaratne, Hanne Watkins, Melissa Wheeler, Ain Simpson, Maria Abou-Abdullah, Julian Fernando, Shang-Hui Shin

Research Publications

For a full, regularly updated list of publications, see Google Scholar.

Forgas, J. P., Laham, S. M., & Vargas, P. T. (2005). Mood effects on eyewitness memory: Affective influences on susceptibility to misinformation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology41(6), 574-588.

Laham, S. M., Gonsalkorale, K., & von Hippel, W. (2005). Darwinian grandparenting: Preferential investment in more certain kin. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin31(1), 63-72.

Laham, S. M., Koval, P., & Alter, A. L. (2012). The name-pronunciation effect: Why people like Mr. Smith more than Mr. Colquhoun. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology48(3), 752-756.

Azaad, S., Laham, S. M., & Shields, P. (2019). A meta-analysis of the object-based compatibility effect. Cognition190, 105-127.

Karunaratne, K., & Laham, S. M. (2019). Social Dominance Orientation Predicts Opposition to Hierarchy-Attenuating Intergroup Apologies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0146167219838549.

Research Projects

For project inquiries, contact our research group head.



Faculty Research Themes

Neuroscience

School Research Themes

Cognitive Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience, Social and Personality Psychology



Key Contact

For further information about this research, please contact Laboratory Director Dr Simon Laham

Department / Centre

Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences

Unit / Centre

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