Ryan Carlson

Ryan Carlson

Behavioral Scientist

Chicago, IL

Human beings are capable of remarkable acts of kindness and hostility. I study the psychological forces that drive them, and how to tip the balance towards kindness.

I’m a Research Scientist at the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI), where I build AI-powered tools and conduct research to help people navigate disagreement more constructively. More broadly, my work asks how motivation and morality interact: what drives prosocial behavior, how we judge others' motives for it, and how well we can introspect on our own. I pursue these questions through a mix of behavioral experiments, field studies, and computational modelling. Some of this work has been covered by BBC, Time, and Discover.

I grew up in Vancouver, Canada, where I earned my BA at Simon Fraser University. I received my PhD from Yale University and my postdoctoral training from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. To learn more about my work, find my publications below or on Google Scholar.

Education

  • Principal Researcher

    University of Chicago

  • Ph.D. in Psychology, 2023

    Yale University

  • Research Assistant

    Stanford University

  • B.A. (Hons.) in Psychology, 2014

    Simon Fraser University