Lab Picture



Lab News

0
  • 10.11.2024 - Our grad applications are going live on October 14th. I am reviewing applications for students in a few areas (SPDP, CDBS, CSP). Also, our RA application is live! See details below.

  • 04.07.2024 - Welcome to the lab, Emil! Emil is completing a BA in Psychology at Simon Fraser University, and will be a graduate student in the MISC Lab at Western in Fall, 2024.

Motivational Influences and Social Cognition Lab (MISC Lab)

The lab investigates how interpersonal and intergroup dynamics shape people's propensity and capacity to engage in what we broadly refer to as socioemotional processes to build relatively challenging social connections and understanding. We study a range of individual and contextual factors that influence these processes, often focusing on people's desire to “opt-in” to them, and how these sorts of responses are perceived and desired from both sides (e.g., the “empathizer” and the “empathized with"). The lab aims to apply multiple methods, adapting from social and cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and psychophysiology

Values mandate


People

Dr. Julian Scheffer, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Principal Investigator (PI)

My research broadly examines the utility of socioemotional processes such as empathy and compassion for building interpersonal and intergroup connection. I study how mental effort perceptions, neural damage, and neurodegeneration impact people's propensity and capacity to share in and understand the perspectives of other people as well as foster concern for their well-being. Further, I examine how these same processes wax and wane across challenging interpersonal and intergroup contexts, such as in the context of political rivals, in caregivers of people diagnosed with neurodegenerative disease, and in forging allyship to address social injustices.

Prior to arriving at Western, Dr. Scheffer completed his HBSc at University of Toronto Scarborough, his MA at University of Iowa, his PhD at the Pennsylvania State University, and a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Berkeley.

Curriculum vitae

Emil Dzhunushaliev

Master of Science Option I (MSc1)

I am an MSc student at the University of Western Ontario working under the supervision of Dr. Julian Scheffer. I completed my BA in Psychology (Hons.) at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Broadly speaking, my research interests involve hope, optimism, intergroup relations, and empathy.


Research Lines

Factors that Influences Decisions to Engage in Interpersonal Emotional Processes (e.g., Empathy, Compassion).

When seeing someone in the distance asking people for spare change, or viewing a charity ad depicting people suffering on TV, how do people decide to engage with these people using empathy and compassion, or avoid these types of experiences altogether? The lab applies motivational frameworks such as effort-based decision-making (EBDM) to examine whether people would select into opportunities to experience empathy - sharing in the feelings and experiences of other people as if they were their own, compassion - feeling a warm and caring concern that may not necessarily involve sharing that person's suffering, or avoid these experiences by remaining emotionally detached so they can objectively evaluate the external situation. We investigate where mental effort emerges in these responses, as well as how we can overcome those costs to increase social engagement.

Reconsidering the role of effort in moral emotions

The Neural Substrates of Decisions to Experience Empathy and Moral Judgment

Leveraging a neurobiological approach and using patient models, the lab investigates the neural substrates that may influence people's decisions to engage in empathy. We study whether individuals with lesions to these regions would show differences in their willingness to cultivate empathy, and further explore whether differences would emerge when choosing in the context of a more affective form of empathy - experience-sharing, or a more cognitive form of empathy - involving imagining another person's emotional experience. The lab also studies neurodegenerative diseases which impact regions linked with socioemotional function, such as the insula, which is often seen in frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Intergroup relations and misperceiving the motives of others

Investigating the Other Side of Interpersonal Emotional Processes like Empathy

We may often attribute another person's socioemotional responses to be less adaptive or morally virtuous than our own. This can be due to differences in backgrounds, values, or even political affiliations. The lab examines perceptions of the people on the other side of an interpersonal empathic encounter, for how they view the person who cultivates empathy for them. We focus on interpersonal dynamics which often require cooperation in order to facilitate effective relationships, such as with political opponents, potential majority group member allies to marginalized minorities, and caregivers of people with neurodegenerative diseases with altered socioemotional function.

Examining minority perspectives on being the targets of moral emotions

Selected Publications


Scheffer, J.A., Cameron, C.D., & Inzlicht, M. (2022). Caring is costly: People avoid the cognitive work of compassion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151(1), 172-196. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001073


Scheffer, J.A., Cameron, C.D., McKee, S., Hadjiandreou, E., & Scherer, A.M. (2022). Stereotypes about compassion across the political spectrum. Emotion, 22(3), 466-478. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/emo0000820


Cameron, C.D., Scheffer, J.A., Hadjiandreou, E., & Anderson, S. (2022). Motivated empathic choices. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 191-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2022.04.005


Cameron, C.D., Conway, P., & Scheffer, J.A. (2021). Empathy regulation, prosociality, and moral judgment. Current Opinion in Psychology, 44, 188-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.09.011


Cameron, C.D., Hutcherson, C.A., Ferguson, A.M., Scheffer, J.A., Hadjiandreou, E., & Inzlicht, M. (2019). Empathy is hard work: People choose to avoid empathy because of its cognitive costs. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148, 962-976. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000595


Media


2024 - Your Mind on Compassion Minds Matter Podcast


2020 - Moral emotions during COVID-19: Examining the role of motivation and choice Penn State Social Science Research Institute


Join the Lab

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Scheffer can discuss postdoctoral research fellowship opportunities on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship with the MISC Lab and Dr. Scheffer, please send an email detailing the type of research you hope to complete with the lab, your timeline for completing your PhD, and any plans for pursuing funding for the fellowship (e.g., SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, etc.).

Graduate Students

Dr. Scheffer plans to review applications for MSc students in the SPDP, CDBS, and CSP areas for the 2025-2026 application cycle. For application instructions and updates, visit: how to apply.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

The MISC Lab plans to regularly review needs for undergraduate research assistants at the beginning of each semester and during the term on a case-by-case basis as needs arise. If interested, please fill out the following survey: undergraduate research assistant survey.


University of Western Ontario

Department of Psychology

Social Science Centre Rm 7418

London, ON, N6A 5C2

Twitter LinkedIn Mail
Designed and built by Colin Paul

Copyright © MMXV - MMXXIV

All Rights Reserved