Jean Decety

Jean Decety (Ph.D. in Neuroscience, University Claude Bernard, France) is Irving B. Harris Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago. He is the Director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab and the Child Neurosuite. Dr. Decety research relies on multilevel interdisciplinary analyses of the biological mechanisms of social behavior. He also highly values teaching as it encourages to think about the long road, the big picture, and find meaningful links with other disciplines such as economics, mental health, sociology and political science.

email: decety [AT] uchicago.edu
For a list of Dr. Decety’s courses

Post doctoral scholars and graduate students

Mika Armenta

Prior joining the Integrative Neuroscience graduate program, Mika completed a B.A. in psychology and international studies at the University of New Mexico where she investigated the effects of cognitive-behavioral training and non-invasive brain stimulation on cognitive/affective processes. She has also worked on studies of human performance and visual cognition at Sandia National Laboratories. Mika is interested in understanding the ultimate causes and proximate mechanisms underlying revenge and forgiveness. She values an approach that integrates evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics to understand group social processes.

email: armenta [AT] uchicago.edu

Elizabeth Huppert

Elizabeth Huppert received a B.A. in psychology and classics from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. She then completed a M.A. degree at the University of Chicago, studying the effects of scarcity on moral judgment and behavior in adults. Now Elizabeth is examining the impact of resource shortage on children’s moral cognition, prosocial behavior, and concern with reputation. Additionally, she is investigating social decision-making and distributive justice in a cross-cultural project combining behavioral economics and developmental psychology in North and South America, Africa, Europe, Middle East, the Caribbean and Asia.

email: ehuppert [AT] uchicago.edu

Sara Lee

Sara Lee received a B.A in Environmental Sciences and completed a sub-major program in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Tokyo, where she has had the opportunity to experiment with the use of songbirds to examine physiological resonance and empathic processes. Additionally, She has worked as a trainee at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute. Sara is interested in neural mechanisms associated with empathy, development of moral behavior, and political violence.

email: soohyun1995 [AT] uchicago.edu

Jessica Linder

Jessica Linder received her B.A. in psychology and biology, with a cognitive neuroscience concentration, from the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado.  After college, Jessica worked as a behavioral interventionist for children and adults with developmental disabilities. She then returned to academia, and completed an M.A. degree at the University of Chicago, studying act-person dissociations, and moral judgments of guilt and character in the presence of over-justification. Jessica is also currently pursuing research on actor-target asymmetries related to discretion and prosociality. She will be joining the SCNL team in September 2017 as the Lab Manager.

email: jnlinder [AT] uchicago.edu

Leslie Perez

Leslie Perez received her B.S. in Behavioral Sciences and Leadership from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. She participated in a research effort to explore the effectiveness of information-sharing and implementation across “in-group” and “out-group” student circles. She also participated in a research with the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division to enhance combat medic training, increase individual and team readiness and performance by assessing common training media. She is interested in cognition, violence, and aggression.

email: laperez[AT] uchicago.edu

Cliff Workman

Cliff Workman received his Ph.D. (Medicine) from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) where he investigated the relationship of moral cognition and emotions to the physiopathology of major depression. Before, he completed a B.S. in Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where he worked on studies of clinical, cognitive, and social functioning. After college, Cliff worked at Johns Hopkins University on neuroimaging studies of psychiatric disorders. He joined the SCNL in 2016 as a post-doctoral scholar to investigate the neurobiological and social bases of susceptibility to persuasion with terrorist propaganda.

email: cliffworkman [AT] uchicago.edu

Keith Yoder

Keith Yoder received his Ph.D. (Psychology) from the University of Chicago where he used behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience to investigate justice sensitivity. He received a B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University while working with EEG in the Laboratory for the Neuroscience of Autism. Keith joined the SCNL in 2010 and received a M.A. in Social Science the following year. Currently, he is using functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging to investigate socioemotional processing abnormalities associated with psythopathic traits in incarcerated females. Keith is also interested in using neuroeconomics and neurolaw to inform social policy and criminal justice.

email: kjyoder [AT] uchicago.edu