Summer 2013: Psychology Research Assistant at UNCWilliam Williamson, Centre College, Class 2014

The Mind Perception and Morality Lab, under the direction of Prof. Kurt Gray, is in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The lab investigates moral judgments and how people perceive the minds of others. Linking mind perception and morality can help explain why people debate torture, why they believe in God and how good (and evil) deeds can make people physically more powerful. Research conducted by MPM lab members has been featured in the New York Times, the Economist, the National Post, Harvard Magazine, the Boston Globe and at two TED events.

This summer I worked with Dr. Kurt Gray at the Mind Perception and Morality Lab at UNC Chapel Hill. I participated in experimental design , data collection and data analysis for a number of projects. I also designed my own study that was carried out at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly. I gained research experience, which is invaluable for admission into psychology graduate programs. Furthermore this summer I combined my interests in both religion and psychology. I want to be a counselor and a minster, and this summer I studied information that will be invaluable to this career. I was also able to practice leadership through running labs. This meant that I was taking lead on data collection, participant control, and data analysis. Personally helped my own development by allowing me to really see what makes up the psychology of religion as well as determine that I do not want to do research as a career.

Kurt Gray, the lab’s supervising professor completed his undergrad at the University of Waterloo and his PhD at Harvard. Unsurprisingly given the title of the lab, he is interested in mind perception and morality. He would hold lab meetings and help plan research projects. Chelsea Schein is a graduate student investigating morality and mind perception and studying how these judgments vary across time and different targets. She also researches moral behavior, for instance, what factors make people less likely to cheat. She handled the day to day affairs of the lab and was my primary boss.

The Lab

This summer I helped with different parts of several projects. I designed surveys, ran participants, researched literature reviews, collected data, and analyzed data. The three skills I became the best at were literature research, survey creation and survey collection. I know how to use databases far more than before in academic research. I am also an expert on Qualtics, software that helps create surveys. Although I did get out of the lab to collect data most of the summer was spent in front of a computer.

Project One: Evolution SupportIt seems that people who disagree with evolution are not necessarily against the evolution of the human body but the human mind. When primed to think about our physical similarities with other primate subjects are more likely to agree with evolution than when subjects are primed to think about our mental similarities.

I was able to have my own project this summer. To enhance my study of religious psychology I wanted to study Unitarian Universalists because they are a small population that rarely get representative samples in major psychological studies. I designed my own survey with questions based on questions asked in Pew and Gallop polls as well as based on the morality research at the lab. In order to access this population I went to General Assembly (GA), the UU annual conference, held this year in Louisville. GA was the best opportunity to access a diverse group of Unitarian Universalists.

Participants: Ninety-five GA attendees were surveyed. The majority were Unitarian Universalists.

Materials: A thirty-eight question survey primarily made of Likert scale questions.

Procedure: Surveys were collected everywhere but the best spots were at big events such as rallies. The Surveys were also collected at meals and at the exhibit hall.

Abstract

Lab Personnel

Lab Projects

Personal Project

Results

My Job

Project Three: Placement of Blame and Praise. It appears that people place praise at the nearest actor and blame follows the chain of command. Ex: A well behaved child is a “good” child. A misbehaved child has “bad” parents.

Project Two: Morals & SteroidsAlthough people say they are morally against performance enhancing drugs (PED) it seems that this is not entirely true. There does seem to be a moral rule against PEDs when a person is competing against a user. However when competing as a part of a team with a user the moral imperative switches to favoring PEDs because it will help the team.

Method

Morality

is Objec

tive

Morality

of an Acti

on is Dep

enden

t on th

e Acti

on Itself

There

are C

lear G

uidelines

of what

is Good an

d Evil

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

Moral Questions

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Stro

ngly

Disa

gree

to S

tron

gly

Agre

e

31%

30%

40%

Age of Respondents

16-29

30-59

60-89

Clergy Family Theology Liturgy Political/Social Views Friends1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Importance of __ in Converting

16-2930-5960-89

Not

at A

ll to

Ext

rem

ely

Spirtual Person Religious Person0

102030405060708090

Do You Consider Yourself a ...

Yes No

Personal

Religio

us Beli

efs ar

e Importa

nt

Faith

is Lar

ge Part

of Iden

tity

Exter

nal Im

portance

of Reli

gious Id

entity

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Faith Importance

16-2930-5960-89

Stro

ngly

Disa

gree

to S

tong

ly A

gree