MEATLab
Moral Emotions and Trust Lab
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Welcome to the Moral Emotions and Trust Lab!
We study the psychological mechanisms underlying all things related to trust, cooperation and moral judgment, with a particular interest in how emotions influence behaviors and decisions in these domains. We use methodology from social and cognitive psychology to ask all kinds of fun questions, like: what makes people act hypocritically? Why and when do we feel compassion for those in need? How do individuals and institutions regain trust after moral failings?
If you are interested in these topics, check out the Research page for a list of past and current projects. If you are an undergraduate at the Claremont Colleges and want to learn more about the lab or join up, you can fill out this form and email it to us at cmcmeatlab@gmail.com. You can also check out our Facebook page to keep up on lab news and events.
Research
Moral Emotions
Many of our projects study the influence of discrete emotional states such as compassion, awe, and gratitude in social life. By eliciting emotions in real time in our experiments, we test their influence on cognition and behavior and try to (in, hopefully, not too speculative a way) argue for their evolutionary function.
Valdesolo, P. & Graham, J. (in prep) Awe, ambiguity and agency detection.
Valdesolo & Bartlett (in prep) Beating them down with kindness: Gift-giving shapes interpersonal power.
Moral Judgment and Trust
How do people make moral judgments? Why are we such hypocrites? How do people and organizations build and lose trust? These are tough questions that require tough scientists to address them. Here are some examples of how we’ve flexed on them in the past:
Valdesolo, Chen, & Jones (in prep) Returning to grace: Perceived entitativity moderates the efficacy of responses to corruption.
Valdesolo, Lehr, Lessig & Banaji (under review) Contagious inferences in institutional trust: The costs of transparency
Valdesolo & DeSteno (2008) The Duality of Virtue: Deconstructing the Moral Hypocrite. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(5), 1334-1338 *Featured in Editor’s Choice, Science. May 9 2008.
Coordinated Action and Social Cognition
How does coordination among bodies impact coordination among minds? In these projects we look at how moving in time with others (behavioral synchrony) influences interpersonal and intergroup judgments, such as feelings of agency, self-awareness, decisions to help, and information processing style.
Valdesolo & Foda (in prep) Moving the masses. Synchrony, cognitive style and persuasion.
Wiltermuth, Valdesolo & Harmon (under review) Synchrony and loss of Self.
Valdesolo & Winter (under revision) Dancing with the Devil: Synchrony and the communication and contamination of character.
People
Current MEATheads:
Piercarlo Valdesolo (CV)
I am an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College and the director of the MEATLab. When I’m not professing, I enjoy playing soccer or any racket sport, cooking, film snobbery and watching my daughter do absolutely anything. Sometimes I like thinking and writing about tastier things, too.
Kelly Chen
Kelly is a junior hailing from the quaint city of Milpitas in Northern California. She is a Psychology and International Relations dual major at CMC. Kelly is currently a CMS Athena on the women's tennis team, but enjoys playing various sports ranging from lacrosse to basketball. In her spare time, she enjoys eating any and all types of food, watching psychological thrillers, and reading countless fiction novels.
Jessie Huang
Jessie is a psychology and philosophy dual major at CMC. She discovered her affinity for moral psychology after studying the ambiguities of free will (shout out to Professor Kreines). She is currently a semi-compatiblist, although that may be subject to change (to be determined). She enjoys her pork battered and fried, her chicken well done, and her steak medium-rare. She’s also like, so meta.
Sibinee Jokela
Sibee is a junior at CMC and studies psychology, much to her father's dismay. She enjoys participating in any kind of physical activity with her favorites being dance, racquetball, ultimate frisbee, or a competitive game of badminton. When not playing sports, she places her focus on her next favorite activity, "food tasting", and hopes the two will balance out. Sibee aspires to one day know what she aspires to do with her life.
Kari Linder
Kari is a freshman at CMC interested in studying behavioral psych and neuropsychology. She is originally from Kansas City and competes on a high level in physically demanding sports such as inner-tube water polo, curling, and Nintendo 64. She is on the CMC Animal Shelter Volunteer Team aspires to one day find a way to keep a dog in her dorm without Campus Security finding out.
Isabela Osthoff-Magalhaes
Isabela is a Psychology major at CMC with a sequence in Gender Studies. She has lived in six countries, loves anything made of chocolate, and wishes she could spend the rest of her life going to music festivals around the world.
Sheila Panez
Sheila is a sophomore at CMC majoring in Neuroscience with an interest in Cognitive, Developmental, and Behavioral Neuroscience. She is full Peruvian and enjoys the various food (especially mama's cooking) and culture. She has lived in SoCal by the beach her whole life...and loves it. She enjoys playing soccer, jogging by the beach, spending quality time with family and friends, and having a good read now and then.
Mallika Srinivasan
Mallika is a sophomore at CMC studying Economics, Psychology and Leadership. She's originally from India, but has lived abroad and also plans to study in London in her junior year of college. She enjoys dancing, swimming, arguing and listening to music.Contact
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