Lab Director
Dr. Kristin Laurin, PhD
Dr. Kristin Laurin is a Professor in the Psychology Department of the University of British Columbia. Her research investigates how people’s goals and motivations interact with their beliefs and ideologies – about politics, about religion, or about the nature of the world.
Learn more about Dr. Laurin
Graduate Students
Will Jettinghoff
Will is interested in motivated belief and reasoning. Specifically, he is interested in how our values, goals, emotions, and identities motivate our beliefs and reasoning in moral, economic, and scientific contexts.
Nick Kay
Nick is interested in social class, meritocracy, and inequality, and how motivated reasoning shapes our moral attitudes towards these issues.
Irein Thomas
Irein is interested in studying questions at the intersection of morality and existential psychology, exploring diverse kinds of questions, like the role politics plays in our social interactions, the efficacy of land acknowledgments, and the importance of authenticity in Western culture.
Khai Qing Chua
Khai Qing is interested in how our social groups affect the way we see ourselves and others. In particular, she studies intergroup relations and social inequalities.