Research Interests
For more information, see my lab website: Morality and Social Cognition Lab
My primary interests are in understanding how people think and feel about other people, particularly as this relates to how people form and revise their moral judgments. I study social and moral cognition, perspective taking and empathy, intentionality and mental states, and psychology and the law.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Watanabe, S., & Laurent, S. M. (2019). Feeling bad and doing good: Forgivability through the lens of uninvolved third parties. Social Psychology.
Lozano, E. B., & Laurent, S. M. (2019). Dammed when others shift blame, even more dammed when they don’t: The persistence of expectations for blame-shifting. PLOS ONE.
Laurent, S. M. , & Clark, B. A. M. (2019). What makes hypocrisy? Folk definitions, attitude/behavior combinations, attitude strength, and private/public distinctions. Basic and Applied Social Psychology.
Laurent, S. M. , Reich, B. J., & Skorinko, J. L. M. (2019). Reconstructing the side-effect effect: A new way of understanding how moral considerations drive intentionality asymmetries. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Laurent, S. M., Nuñez, N. L., & Schweitzer, K. A. (2016). Unintended, but still blameworthy: The roles of awareness, desire, and anger in negligence, restitution, and punishment. Cognition and Emotion, 30(7), 1271-1288.
Laurent, S. M., Nuñez, N. L., & Schweitzer, K. A. (2015). The influence of knowledge and desire on perception of each other and related mental states, and different mechanisms for blame. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 60
Myers, M. W., Laurent, S. M., & Hodges, S. D. (2014). Perspective taking instructions and self-other overlap: Different motives for helping. Motivation and Emotion, 38(2), 224-234.
Education
Social Psychology, Ph.D., University of Oregon
Psychology, BA, University of Massachusetts
BA (Psychology and Commonwealth College), University of Massachusetts, Amherst
MS/PhD, University of Oregon.
External Links
Creative/Performing Interests
- Social/Moral Cognition; Moral Emotions
- Blame/Praise; Intentions/Intentionality; Causal Responsibility
- Perspective Taking; Empathy; Empathic Accuracy
- Psychology and the Law
Highlighted Publications
Laurent, S. M., Reich, B., & Skorinko, J. (2019). Reconstructing the side-effect effect: A new way of understanding how moral considerations drive intentionality asymmetries. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(10), 1747-1766. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000554
Laurent, S. M., & Clark, B. A. M. (2019). What Makes Hypocrisy? Folk Definitions, Attitude/Behavior Combinations, Attitude Strength, and Private/Public Distinctions. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 41(2), 104-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2018.1556160
Laurent, S. M., Nuñez, N. L., & Schweitzer, K. A. (2016). Unintended, but still blameworthy: the roles of awareness, desire, and anger in negligence, restitution, and punishment. Cognition and Emotion, 30(7), 1271-1288. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1058242
Lozano, E. B., & Laurent, S. M. (2019). The effect of admitting fault versus shifting blame on expectations for others to do the same. PLoS One, 14(3), [e0213276]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213276
Laurent, S. M., Nuñez, N. L., & Schweitzer, K. A. (2015). The influence of desire and knowledge on perception of each other and related mental states, and different mechanisms for blame. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 60, 27-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.04.009
Laurent, S. M., Clark, B. A. M., & Schweitzer, K. A. (2015). Why side-effect outcomes do not affect intuitions about intentional actions: Properly shifting the focus from intentional outcomes back to intentional actions. Journal of personality and social psychology, 108(1), 18-36. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000011
Recent Publications
Laurent, S. M., Reich, B. J., & Skorinko, J. L. M. (2021). Understanding Side-Effect Intentionality Asymmetries: Meaning, Morality, or Attitudes and Defaults? Personality and social psychology bulletin, 47(3), 410-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220928237
Watanabe, S., & Laurent, S. M. (2021). Volition Speaks Louder Than Action: Offender Atonement, Forgivability, and Victim Valuation in the Minds of Perceivers. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 47(6), 1020-1036. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220953996
Watanabe, S., & Laurent, S. M. (Accepted/In press). Disgust Toward Interracial Couples: Mixed Feelings About Black–White Race Mixing. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(5), 769-779. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620939411
Watanabe, S., & Laurent, S. M. (2020). Feeling Bad and Doing Good: Forgivability through the Lens of Uninvolved Third Parties. Social Psychology, 51(1), 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000390
Weiner, D. S., & Laurent, S. M. (Accepted/In press). The (Income-Adjusted) Price of Good Behavior: Documenting the Counter-Intuitive, Wealth-Based Moral Judgment Gap. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000952
