Yet these asymmetries vanish when judgments are made side by side. Moreover, across studies, public virtue was judged as less morally good than private virtue (i.e., virtue discounting), a difference most consistently accounted for by lower attributions of principled motivation for public actions.

Across 4 preregistered studies (N=2,511), we find self-serving asymmetries. On average, people expect their own public acts of virtue to appear more principled, less reputation driven, and more trustworthy than people tend to rate identical public actions performed by others.

Across 6 European countries, people feel more responsible to protect future generations than to directly reduce climate change. Both forms of responsibility predict climate policy support.

🔗 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lcgHzzKDP...

New paper w/ Zhaoquan Wang, @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, & many others.

Excited to share
@seoyeonbae211.bsky.social's first preprint—an ambitious global study of human motivation!

Using data from 900,000+ people in 100+ countries, we find altruistic motives consistently outweigh egoistic ones across cultures.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Across 3 studies, we find that valuing future lives equally—regardless of their distance in time—predicts stronger interest in long-term oriented, high-impact careers.

Preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

@stysyropoulos.bsky.social @amormino.bsky.social @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social

New preprint! Do people who care about future generations actually do less to help others today?
Across 3 studies—including both deceased and non-directed living organ donors—we find the opposite:
Concern for the distant future predicts altruism now. 🌍🫀
👉 tinyurl.com/23r4cakh

New paper by @amormino.bsky.social and colleagues! They develop and validate a short form of the Social Discounting Task—a fast, reliable measure of how altruism declines with social distance. Perfect for tight surveys or large-scale studies.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

📢 New Preprint: Who cares about the future? We examine how age, ideology, SES, and other sociodemographic factors shape future-oriented thinking across 37,000+ participants worldwide.

Check it out here: tinyurl.com/4et62tek

@lianeleeyoung.bsky.social
@stysyropoulos.bsky.social

🚨 Arizonans: Science fuels jobs, innovation, & huge returns—every $1 in federal research brings >$4 back to the economy! In 2023 alone, AZ’s biotech industry drove >$40B impact & >40K jobs. Contact your reps & stand up for science!

Thanks @lanishiota.bsky.social for organizing! #StandUpForScience

Big thanks to @spspnews.bsky.social and everyone who attended our symposium on barriers and pathways to altruistic equality! We appreciate the engaging discussion and insights. Special thanks to Stephanie Preston for providing stellar moderation—your expertise and guidance was outstanding!

Join us Saturday afternoon for a #SPSP2025 symposium on the real & perceived boundaries of altruistic equality—and how moral learning can help transcend them! Featuring talks by @amormino.bsky.social, @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, Falk Lieder, and me, with moderation by Stephanie Preston!

Excited to share our new paper in PSPB! @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, Gordon Kraft-Todd, @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social and I validate a method for assessing impartial intergenerational beneficence––high levels of concern for ALL future generations.

Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Christmas, Hanukkah, and an editorial I wrote with @briandavidearp.bsky.social and @stysyropoulos.bsky.social on the multigenerational bioethics of artificial intelligence coincided this year. Happy holidays!

jme.bmj.com/content/50/1...

How does (un)certainty shape concern for the welfare of future generations?

New article in PSPB with @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, Brendan Bo O’Connor and Liane Young! #psychscisky #sustainability

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Had an amazing time presenting work on the psychology of altruism and exceptional care at #APS24SF. Many thanks to my PhD Advisor, Bren O’Connor, as well as Stelios Syropoulos, Paige Amormino, Liane Young, & Abby Marsh. Special thanks also goes out to the John Templeton Foundation for their support!

I had the most wonderful time at #SPSP2024 in San Diego sharing ideas and good times with my friends and family in science. I look forward to all the great work we’ll do over the coming months and can’t wait until next year!

Find me at #spsp with a #dietcoke.