Ryan Carlson

Ryan Carlson

PhD Candidate

Yale University

I’m a PhD candidate in Psychology at Yale University and research affiliate at Princeton Unviersity working primarily with Molly Crockett. Before my PhD, I completed my BA (Hons.) in Psychology with Lara Aknin at Simon Fraser University, and then worked as a full-time research assistant for two years with Jamil Zaki at Stanford University.

How well do we know our own and other people’s motives in social life? How is our knowledge about what motivates us influenced by those around us? Why do we sometimes see other people’s actions as motivated by self-interest or hate? Addressing these questions is key to understanding the roots of human trust and human conflict. In my work, I study how people come to know their own and other people’s motives in social life, as well as the social consequences of these perceptions. To address these questions, I use theoretical insights from social psychology and methods from cognitive science. My research on these topics has been covered in popular press outlets, including BBC, Time, and Discover. For more details on my research, check out my publications below, or on Google Scholar.

Interests
  • Social Psychology
  • Introspection
  • Social Cognition
  • Motivated Cognition
  • Computational Modelling
Education
  • M.Phil. in Psychology, 2020

    Yale University

  • M.S. in Psychology, 2019

    Yale University

  • B.A. (Hons.) in Psychology, 2014

    Simon Fraser University