Jean Decety
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Jean Decety is a French-American neuroscientist. He is the Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago and its College. Decety is Director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. His work and teaching focus on social cognition, particularly morality, empathy, social influence, and prosocial behavior. His discoveries have led to new understandings of social-emotional processes in children and adults, as well as in incarcerated criminal psychopaths. His research uses neuroimaging techniques (structural and functional MRI, and high-density EEG), coupled with methods from cognitive psychology and behavioral economics to determine how biological and social factors dynamically interact in contributing to decision-making and the motivation to care for the welfare of others. Jean Decety currently explores the impact of extreme ethnic violence on children's distributive justice decisions, and considerations of justice and fairness. This research is being conducted in different African countries. Decety also examines how and why strong moral convictions can facilitate dogmatism, intolerance and engagement in violent collective action.
In February 2024, he joins the IAS for a one-month writing residency.
Research Interests
Behavioral economics, Developmental psychology, Morality, Neurobiology, Sociality, Social decision-making
The dark side of morality
The view that morality is a set of evolved biological and cultural adaptations for solving cooperative problems in social interactions has gained traction. Yet, moral values do not always bear directly on cooperation and are, in fact, sometimes detrimental to social cohesion. People are motivated by shared social values that, when held with moral conviction, can serve as compelling mandates capable of facilitating support for ideological violence. Moral conviction has the potential to inspire activism and change but can also instigate divisiveness and great harm. Moreover, attitudes held with moral conviction are experienced as universal objective truths and are less likely to demonstrate social conformity.
The project seeks to understand the social, cognitive, and neural mechanisms underlying the dark side of morality from a social neuroscience perspective by articulating knowledge from the social sciences and biological science across levels of analyses (computational, value-based decision-making, and social influence). During my short stay at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies, I will write a theoretical paper on current empirical research and give a public lecture.
Given the polarized and violent social dynamics that we see across the globe about many issues, from global warming, food choices, and gender identities, this work has particular importance and relevance for progressing efforts aiming to reduce conflict and encouraging productive dialogue and tolerance.
Key publications
Workman, C. I., Yoder, K. J., & Decety, J. (2020). "The dark side of morality - Neural mechanisms underpinning moral convictions and support for violence". American Journal of Bioethics - Neuroscience, 11(4), 269-284.
Yoder, K. J. et Decety, J. (2022). "Moral conviction and metacognitive ability shape multiple stages of information processing during social decision-making". Cortex, 151, 162-175.
 New session of the "Paris IAS Ideas" talk series, with the participation of Jean Decety, University of Chicago / Paris IAS Fellow |
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