Molly J. Crockett is an American neuroscientist who studies human morality,

altruism Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...

and decision making. She received the 2019 Janet Taylor Spence Award from the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

Career

Crockett is originally from Irvine, California. She is an associate professor of psychology at Princeton University. Previously she was an associate professor of Psychology at Yale, and associate professor of experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, a fellow at University College London and the University of Zürich, funded by the Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust, awarded in 2010. After completing her Bachelor of Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, she completed her PhD at King's College, Cambridge, where she was a

Gates Cambridge Scholar The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established the Gates Cambridge Scholarships in 2000 with a $210 million donation to support outstanding graduate students' study at the University of Cambridge. The scholarship is one of the most competitiv ...

Work

Crockett studies behavioral neuroscience, with a particular focus on the role of

neurotransmitter A neurotransmitter is a signaling molecule secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse. The cell receiving the signal, any main body part or target cell, may be another neuron, but could also be a gland or muscle cell. Neuro ...

s on

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

, for example studying how antidepressants affect negotiations in experimental settings. She has criticized science journalists for over hyping the generality of some of her research findings. Recently, Crockett has begun researching

moral outrage Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...

. ;Works * * * * * *

References

External links

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Beware Neuro Bunk
TED talk, 2012
Drugs and Morals 2011
TEDx talk, 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Crockett, Molly J. Living people American neuroscientists Academics of University College London Alumni of King's College, Cambridge American moral psychologists Scientists from Irvine, California Year of birth missing (living people) American women neuroscientists Yale University faculty 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists American women academics