UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Scholars from around the globe attended Penn State’s Consortium on Moral Decision-Making conference on political polarization and moral decision-making in April.
Organizer Daryl Cameron, director of the consortium, Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute and associate professor of psychology, said scholars from psychology, political science, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, communications and media studies all gathered both virtually and in person for the event.
“The goal of the conference was to bring together researchers across disciplines to understand political morality and host discussions addressing political divisions and moral reasoning,” Cameron said.
Presenters included Penn State alumni Michael Pasek, who earned a doctorate in psychology and is now an assistant professor at University of Illinois at Chicago; and Joseph Phillips, who earned a doctorate in political science and is now faculty at the Cardiff University in Wales.
Additional Penn State speakers included Sean Laurent, psychology; Daniel DellaPosta, sociology; Chris Beem, McCourtney Institute for Democracy; Chris Skurka, Bellisario College of Communications; and Anne Pisor, anthropology.
Other presentations included speakers from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, Seattle University, Northwestern University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Utah, Duke University, University of Illinois, University of Delaware and Yale University. Additionally, international speakers hailed from University of Kaiserslautern-Landau.
In addition to presentations on how to think about conflicting moral values and the impact on political disagreements and voting intentions, discussions also highlighted the connection between political polarization and communications, with specific focus on political emotions, media and policy, including how social media shapes and reflects our political identities.
Two interdisciplinary panels cut across social sciences and philosophy, with the afternoon one focusing on different stances on how to think about and address affective polarization between political parties and whether and how this is a worthwhile goal to achieve.
Videos of the presentations may be found on the Social Science Research Institute YouTube page, as well as on the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making website. Images are available here. Below are featured presenters with connections to Penn State:
- Michael Pasek, psychology, University of Illinois Chicago on religious nationalism, received his doctorate in psychology from Penn State
- Joseph Phillips, political science, Cardiff University, on polarization and democracy – received his doctorate in political science from Penn State
- Sean Laurent, psychology, Penn State, on voting and hypocrisy
- Chris Skurka, Penn State Bellisario College of Communications, on “News finds me” mindset
- Daniel DellaPosta, sociology and criminology, Penn State, on why voters choose extreme candidates
- Keith Payne, psychology, University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill, on his book “Good, Reasonable People”
- An interdisciplinary panel on moral divisions with Anne Pisor, anthropology at Penn State; Scott Clifford, political science at Texas A&M; Chris Skurka, Bellisario College of Communications, Penn State; William Brady, Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern University; Emily Kubin, psychology, UNC and University of Kaiserslautern-Landau; and Fade Eadeh psychology, Seattle University
- An interdisciplinary panel on polarization and empathy with Mark Brandt, psychology, Michigan State; Hannah Read, philosophy, Duke University; Samantha Moore-Berg, psychology, University of Utah; Robert Stise, communications, University of Delaware; Daniel DellaPosta, Joseph Phillips
For more information and to get involved in the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making, contact Cameron.
The consortium is being supported by the Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute and The Rock Ethics Institute in the College of the Liberal Arts, with additional funding from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Department of Philosophy and Department of Psychology.