Research Team
Principal Investigators
Liane Young, Ph.D.
Professor › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ liane.young@bc.edu
Liane Young is director of the Morality Lab, which investigates human moral psychology, using the tools of social psychology and neuroscience (e.g., fMRI). Recent projects focus on the impact of social norms on virtue, the role of reasoning for moral thought and action, and belief updating across social contexts. Learn more by visiting http://moralitylab.bc.edu/.
Laura J. Steinberg, Ph.D.
Executive Director › Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College
✉ ljs@bc.edu
Professor Steinberg is executive director of the Schiller Institute and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and was dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse. She has worked on infrastructure management, disaster preparedness and response, engineering education, and environmental modeling.
Gordon Kraft-Todd, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ gordon.krafttodd@gmail.com
Gordon Kraft-Todd is interested in how our social perceptions affect the spread of prosociality. Specifically, he investigates how observers’ judgments of actors’ speech, behavior, motivations, and character influences observers’ moral and normative beliefs as well as their prosocial behavior.
Damon Centola, Ph.D.
Professor › Dept. of Sociology, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
✉ damon.centola@asc.upenn.edu
Damon Centola is Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. His research includes social epidemiology, the diffusion of innovations and cultural norms, and the mobilization of social movements.
Gregg R. Sparkman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ sparkmag@bc.edu
Dr. Sparkman is the director of the Social Influence and Social Change Lab. He focuses on psychology and social change, including research on scalable interventions to address social problems related to the environment, health, and social inequity. He examines motivations to change behavior and how to advocate for change.
Erez Yoeli, Ph.D.
Research Scientist › Applied Cooperation Team (ACT), MIT Sloan School of Management ✉ eyoeli@mit.edu
Erez Yoeli is a research scientist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He uses game theory to study puzzling aspects of people's sense of rights, ethics, and altruism, then applies lessons from this work to addressing real-world problems like increasing energy conservation, improving antiobiotic adherance, and reducing smoking in public places.
Senior Reseachers
Stylianos "Stelios" Syropoulos, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow › Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College
✉ syropoul@bc.edu
Stelios conducts research on how perceptions of past and future generations influence intergenerational, environmental and moral decision-making. Specifically, he is interested in what motivates individuals to engage in prosociality, even when that action comes at a personal cost. Other research interests include national identification and personal safety.
Jordan Wylie, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ wyliej@bc.edu
Jordan is broadly interested in how morality shapes how we see, reason, and make judgments about our worlds. Specifically, she investigates how moral rules and norms influence judgments about rule breakers and the kinds of moral minds we are interested in exploring. She is affiliated with the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding and think tank More in Common.
Isaac Handley-Miner
3rd-Year Graduate Student › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ handleyi@bc.edu
Isaac is interested in how people think about the concept of truth, evaluate the credibility of information sources, and decide what information to trust. He is passionate about open science and interested in metascientific approaches to evaluating the methods used in psychology. Isaac received his B.A. in economics from Hamilton College and worked as a lab manager at Stanford.
Trystan "Trys" Loustau
1st-Year Graduate Student › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ loustau@bc.edu
Trystan is interested in how the complex relationships between our social identities influence our moral beliefs. She received her B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University in 2022, graduating Summa Cum Laude as recipient of the Marion Jewell Hay Award. At FSU, Trystan conducted research on morality and evolutionary social psychology under Dr. Jon Maner and Dr. Paul Conway.
Marcus Trenfield
1st-Year Graduate Student › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ trenfiel@bc.edu
Marcus received his B.A. in Psychology from Harvard University in 2022. He is broadly interested in studying the factors that promote and inhibit cooperative and prosocial behavior, particularly when addressing collective action problems.
Research Staff
Nathan Liang
Project Manager › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ liangna@bc.edu
Nathan Liang is a research coordinator working jointly across the Morality Lab, the Social Influence and Social Change Lab, and the MIT Applied Cooperation Team to facilitate field experiments. He is broadly interested in understanding the influence of social norms on cooperation, intergroup relations, and prosocial behavior.
Elizabeth "Lizy" Szanton
Lab Manager › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ szanton@bc.edu
Lizy graduated from Haverford College in May 2022 with a B.S. in Psychology. Her undergraduate thesis explored how children account for race and adults’ prejudice in their evaluations of gender nonconforming peers. She is interested in the overlap of social bonds, structural marginalization, and wellbeing. She hopes to become a clinical psychologist supporting Queer and trans youth.
Michael "Mookie" Manalili
Research Consultant › Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
✉ manalili@bc.edu
Mookie is a psychotherapist, professor, and researcher interested in suffering, meaning-making, narratives, and memory. He aims to understand how suffering (stress, trauma, and loss) impacts us and to identify what dimensions, protective factors, and interventions are associated with developing psychopathological behaviors or virtuous/prosocial behaviors.