Kyle
Fiore
Law
K
I'm a moral psychologist at the intersection of social-cognitive psychology and ethical philosophy trying to make the world a better place for living beings now and in the future. In particular, I study the cognitive, affective, and moral architecture of exceptional altruism with the ultimate goal of harnessing insights gleaned from the laboratory to help inspire real-world action. Prior to joining The Morality Lab as a postdoctoral researcher, I completed my PhD in the Imagination and Cognition Lab at SUNY Albany.
Research
My research investigates the psychological factors that shape exceptional prosocial behavior––impact-maximizing altruism that transcends parochial boundaries––with the aim of inspiring individual and collective action to solve both present (e.g., poverty, inequality) and future (e.g., climate change, future pandemics, AI) global challenges. Despite people today having unprecedented capacity to help others, this capacity is often underused; human prosociality is relatively insensitive to the consequences of prosocial action, while being surprisingly sensitive to seemingly inconsequential factors like the social and temporal distance of beneficiaries and how the characteristics of beneficiaries are presented (e.g., their identity and number). But effectively addressing global challenges requires prosociality towards the often distant, often faceless multitudes, and sometimes even the too-be-realized multitudes of generations to come––precisely the beneficiaries it is hardest to get humans to care about. My work seeks to overcome these biases by cultivating a more impactful and equitable approach to altruism at the levels of individuals and society by building out knowledge across four distinct but intimately-related domains: (1) prosocial behavior across distance in special populations, (2) prosocial behavior across distance in typical populations, (3) prosocial behavior across the intergenerational divide, and (4) the relationship between individual-level prosociality and indicators of societal welfare.
Prosocial Behavior Across Distance in Special Populations
A central goal of social psychology over the past half-century has been to understand and overcome parochial biases in altruism—tendencies to favor close others over distant ones and individuals over collectives. Earlier research highlighted empathy as a powerful force for promoting prosocial behavior. However, more recent perspectives, including those from prominent voices in the 'Effective Altruism' (EA) movement, argue that empathy is too biased to drive altruism toward distant others. This view suggests that we should downregulate empathy to allow reasoning to guide altruism that maximizes impact. Yet, research on real-world equitable altruists, such as living organ donors or 'Extraordinary Altruists' (XAs), is beginning to show that empathy remains a significant prosocial force. My research in exceptionally altruistic populations seeks to reconcile these conflicting accounts by making sense of the features that drive altruistic equality and impact among EAs, XAs, and controls. I find that both empathy and reasoning independently and synergistically predict greater prosociality, suggesting fervent debates pitting reasoning against empathy may be rooted in a false dichotomy that is holding back knowledge in the prosocial domain.
Prosocial Behavior Across Distance in Typical Populations
The work I do in special populations ultimately stems from an interest in identifying the psychological features that underlie exceptional prosocial behavior in typical adults. Indeed, people often favor helping those close to them over distant others, perceiving a conflict between maximizing global welfare and fulfilling obligations to themselves and those nearby. However, my findings suggest that the same features promoting close relationships and self-concern can also drive concern for others at greater distances. This is promising, because it indicates that capacities most adults already possess—care for themselves and their close others—can be expanded to include distant others, without undermining existing bonds.
While my research shows that some features that promote the expansion of prosocial concern across distance in the general population are rooted in stable personality traits, I find that others, such as capacities in imagination, coping strategies in the face of grand challenges, moral values, reasoning, and empathy, are more malleable. Consequently I have found that targeting these more malleable features through intervention can have profound consequences on people’s altruistic attitudes and behaviors.
Prosocial Behavior Across the Intergenerational Divide
Another line of inquiry I lead addresses present-bias, the tendency to prioritize immediate challenges over long-term societal welfare, which limits concern for future generations much like social distance narrows concern for outgroups and marginalized peoples. This bias is especially troubling given the rising urgency of long-term global threats, such as climate change, future pandemics, and the ethical challenges posed by advancing AI. To tackle this, I developed the Impartial Intergenerational Beneficence Inventory (IIBI), which measures exceptional and temporally-invariant concern for humanity's future. My research employing the IIBI reveals that individuals with greater intergenerational concern are more likely to exhibit, for instance, heightened general prosocial traits, environmental commitment, and support for policies benefiting both future generations and present-day individuals alike. Moreover, this research shows that intergenerational concern can be cultivated through interventions harnessing moral education on intergenerational challenges, perspective-taking exercises, and imaginative thought experiments. Moving forward, I aim to enhance these interventions by integrating technologies like virtual reality and large language models to inspire meaningful engagement with long-term global challenges.
Exploring the Relationship Between Individual-Level Prosociality and Indicators of Societal Welfare
Synthesizing insights across the domains outlined above, I at times examine the connections between individual attitudes, beliefs, and values and the policies and performance of the governmental systems and societies in which people are embedded. Most recently, I’ve found that people’s personal moral values strongly align with the policies and values of their nations, and that systemic poverty and inequality are closely linked to a country’s ability to prioritize long-term, sustainable initiatives and to individuals’ levels of intergenerational concern. These findings not only highlight that individual psychological characteristics are related to those espoused and enacted by systems in power, but stress that collective action can also be instrumental in driving meaningful change at the societal level.
Publications | Preprints | Papers in Progress
Note. *Denotes Joint First-Authorship and Equal Contribution.
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PUBLICATIONS
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Syropoulos, S.* & Law, K. F.*, Kraft-Todd, G., & Young, L. (2024, in press). Impartial intergenerational beneficence: The psychology of feeling (equal) intergenerational concern for all future generations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
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Law, K. F., Colaizzi, G., & Syropoulos, S. (2024, in press). Climate change is an intergenerational challenge that requires intergenerationally-focused behavioral solutions. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
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Law, K. F., Syropoulos, S., O'Connor, B.B., & Young, L. (2024, in press). The probabilistic price of life across time: Generational and probabilistic distance render a life today worth more than ten tomorrow. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.​​
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Law, K. F., Syropoulos, S., & Earp, B. D. (2024, in press). Artificial intelligence, existential risk and equity: The need for multigenerational bioethics. Journal of Medical Ethics.​
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Law, K. F.*, Syropoulos, S.*, Coleman, M., & Young, L. (2024). A future beyond ourselves: Self-oriented prospection predicts increased intergenerational responsibility. Personality and Individual Differences, 233, 112915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112915
​Law, K. F., Syropoulos, S., Coleman, M., Gainsburg, I., & O’Connor, B. B. (2024). Moral future-thinking: Does the moral circle stand the test of time? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 01461672241284324. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241284324​​
​Syropoulos, S., & Law, K. F. (2024). Cultural tightness and its association with national levels of peace: Evidence from a cross-national investigation. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 30(3), 445–453. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000725​
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Syropoulos, S.* & Law, K. F.*, Amormino, P., & Young, L. (2024). Mapping the personality of (exceptional) intergenerational concern. Personality and Individual Differences, 231, 112814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112814
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Syropoulos, S., Law, K. F., Kraft-Todd, G., Mah, A., Markowitz, E., & Young, L. (2024). Responsibility to future generations: A strategy for combatting climate change across political divides. British Journal of Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12775
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Syropoulos, S.* & Law, K. F.*, & Young, L. (2024). The case for longtermism: Concern for the far future as a catalyst for pro-climate action. Npj Climate Action, 3(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-024-00110-8.
Syropoulos, S.* & Law, K. F.*, Mah, A., & Young, L. (2024). Intergenerational concern relates to constructive coping and emotional reactions to climate change via increased legacy concerns and environmental cognitive alternatives. BMC Psychology, 12(1), 182. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01690-0
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Syropoulos, S.* & Law, K. F.*, & Young, L. (2024). Longtermist education interventions increase concern for and action to protect future generations. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 19485506241228465. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506241228465
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Law, K. F.* & Amormino, P.*, Marsh, A. A., & O’Connor, B. B. (2024). Ethical reasoning versus empathic bias: A false dichotomy? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.10.006
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Syropoulos, S.* & Law, K. F.*, & Young, L. (2024). National differences in age and future-oriented indicators relate to environmental performance. Sustainability, 16(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010276
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Law, K. F.*, Syropoulos, S.*, & Young, L. (2023). Why do longtermists care about protecting the environment? An investigation on the underlying mechanisms of pro-climate policy support. Sustainability, 15(24), Article 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416732
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Law, K. F., Campbell, D., & Gaesser, B. (2022). Biased benevolence:The perceived morality of effective altruism across social distance. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 1461672211002773.
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Fowler, Z., Law, K. F., & Gaesser, B. (2021). Against empathy bias: The moral value of equitable empathy. Psychological Science, 32(5), 766–779. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620979965
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Muraven, M., Buczny, J., & Law, K. F. (2019). Ego depletion: Theory and evidence. The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation, 113-134.
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PREPRINTS​
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Law, K. F., Gittle, E., Young, L., & Syropoulos, S. (2024). Mapping and increasing americans’ actual and perceived support for initiatives protecting future generations. Under Review.
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Fowler, Z., Law, K. F., Young, L., Schooler, J., & Syropoulos, S. (2024). Gratitude towards our past self and general gratitude enhance self-continuity. Under Review.
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Law, K.F.*, Syropoulos, S.*, Signorini, A., Young, L., & O'Connor, B.B. (2024). Why global poverty in the present matters for intergenerational concern and the future of humanity. Under Review.
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Fowler, Z., Law, K. F., Bontkes, O., Wardell, V., Palombo, D.J., & O'Connor, B. B. (2024). Collaborative imagination sychronizes emotions about the future. Under Review.
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Syropoulos, S.* & Law, K.F.*, Young, L., & O'Connor, B.B. (2024). Beyond Seven Generations: Mapping and Expanding the Temporal Horizon of Intergenerational Concern. Under Review.
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Syropoulos, S., Crimston, C. R., Markowitz, E., Milfont, T. L., Law, K. F., Claessens, S., Kyritsis, T., Atkinson, Q., Bastian, B., & Rottman, J. (2024). Cross-cultural insights into moral expansiveness: Selective valuation of nature versus humans. Under Review.
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Law, K. F.* & Syropoulos, S.*, Young, L., & O'Connor, B. B. (2024). What we owe the present: The perceived morality of longtermism and helping distant future people. Under Review.
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PAPERS IN PROGRESS​
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Law, K.F., Syropoulos, S., Amormino, P., Kraft-Todd, G., Young, L., Marsh, A., & O’Connor, B.B. (2023). Compassion cartography: Mapping the cognitive, affective, & moral landscape of exceptional care. In Preparation.
Law, K.F., Rottman, J., & O’Connor, B.B. (2023). Ignoring the farthest humans for the trees: moral circles, mind perception, and moral judgments of altruism. In Preparation.
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Law, K.F., Cleveland, M.A., Law, K.F., Horner, A.A., Yartey, P., D’Armiento, J.M., & Goldklang, M.P. (2021). Hospitalized non-vaccinated COVID patients with altered CM phenotype have higher 30 and 60 day respiratory and all-cause mortality. Research Gate Preprint. ​
CONTACT
I am open to collaborate on research or just to chat. Shoot me an email, message me on Linkedin or @me on Twitter. ​