Spike W. S. Lee

We live in a time where social unrest, moral outrage, political polarization, science denialism, class conflicts, and technological disruptions pervade our daily life. Our lab is committed to disentangling the most basic psychological ingredients and mechanisms of ideology, partisanship, polarization, morality, antiscience attitude, and social class. We are also trying to unpack the impact of digital technology, such as easy access to smart devices and artificial intelligence, on our desire and ability to think. 

Our work is guided by two meta-theoretical principles. First, social situatedness. Cognitive, emotional, motivational, and behavioral processes are situated in social contexts. They are sensitive to situational demands and affordances. Second, physical groundedness. Mental activities are grounded in sensorimotor processes. These processes constitute the interface between the physical self and the physical environment. Our interactions with physical reality shape our reactions to social reality through multiple mechanisms. And our experiences of social reality, in turn, shape our sensorimotor and physiological processes. Dynamic loops flow 24/7 between mind, body, and environment.  

Our lab uses a wide range of methods to provide multi-level empirical answers. Examples include meta-analysis with state-of-the-art bias correction techniques, computational analysis of early childhood language, psychophysical assessment, behavioral economic games, online experiment, psychophysiology, survey, dyadic interaction, longitudinal study, pan-cultural analysis, and large-scale text analysis. Our goal is to provide scientific answers to an overarching question in the philosophy of mind: How does the human mind accomplish abstract thinking? We are especially eager to understand how people process various abstract thoughts that matter in sociopolitical conflicts (e.g., antiscience attitudes), that are culturally enshrined (e.g., independence), that emerge early in human development (e.g., gender, morality), that are common in daily life (e.g., stress, love), or that have significant consequences in real-world contexts (e.g., decision making, economic behavior, fake news). For a sample of the research questions we're tackling these days, check out the Research tab.  

We have been publishing our theoretical, empirical, and methodological work in high-impact journals such as Science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Nature Human Behaviour, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Behavior Research Methods. Our graduate and undergraduate students have been winning numerous awards and scholarships, and getting accepted at top-notch graduate programs around the world (e.g., Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Oxford, Toronto). 

Check out our lab website https://psychlab.wixsite.com/socialmoralpolitical for the latest updates and papers.