POE Lab

Existential risks are events that can seriously reduce humanity's potential. Understanding lay judgments about catastrophic threats is important because these perceptions influence support for protective measures. The Psychology of Existence (POE) Lab investigates existential risk judgments as well as related existential concepts (e.g., death anxiety). The lab also conducts research on artificial intelligence (AI), including but not limited to its relation to existential risks.

Existential Psychology

• Improved methodology for measuring existential risk judgments

• Cross-cultural predictors of moral judgments about existential risks

• Improved methodology for measuring death anxiety (in collaboration with Cody Mashburn at Kennesaw State University)

• Intergenerational discounting (in collaboration with Stylianos Syropoulos at Boston College and other co-authors internationally)

AI

• AI for improving research methods

• AI existential risks

• AI in higher education (in collaboration with Evan Faidley, Allison Freed, and Leticia de la Garza at University of Central Arkansas)

EARS (Elliott Attention Recall and Sounds) Lab, Principal Investigator: Emily Elliott, Louisiana State University