Motivational Influences and Social Cognition Lab

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 three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Berkeley.

Curriculum vitae

Graduate Students

Layla Hussain

MSc1 (SPDP)

I completed my BA in Psychology at the University of Waterloo. During my undergraduate studies, I completed an honours thesis examining how eye contact alters the perception of time. I also worked as a research assistant supporting various EEG/ERP studies and as a coordinator for the Talk2Thrive community outreach project. My research interests focus on the psychological and social mechanisms underlying empathy and compassion within the context of caregiving and brain injury. More broadly, I am interested in neuropsychology, perception, and the social determinants of health.

Honours Thesis

Amal Elbuluk

BSc Y5

I'm an undergraduate (Hons. BSc) Psychology student at Western University. My main research interest is exploring how marginalization influences individuals' interpersonal and emotional functioning. Particularly in relation to empathy, compassion, and trauma symptom manifestation.

Olivia Hanham

BSc Y4

My main interest in psychology lies in human cognition and exploring the fundamental processes that make us who we are. In the MISC lab, I look forward to expanding our understanding of psychosocial constructs such as empathy and compassion, and how they influence interpersonal relations between people living with neurodegenerative diseases and their caregivers.

Elle Tomorad

BSc Y5

I am a fifth-year Honours Specialization Student. My research interests in the MISC Lab pertain to how people are influenced by empathy, and how strongly motivated they are by altruism.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Jack Cordingley

BSc Y4

I have a strong interest in behavioral psychology, clinical science, and the socioemotional processes that guide human connection. In the MISC Lab, I hope to explore how motivational factors shape decisions to engage with others emotionally, and how these insights can inform both clinical practice and broader interpersonal dynamics.

Ngawang Yehshopa

BSc Y3

I am a third-year (Honours Specialization) Neuroscience student at Western University. My main research interest would be exploring patients with neurological conditions and how it may affect emotional processing and expression.

Laurren Theriault (King's University)

BSc Y3

I am a third-year honours specialization psychology student at Western University (King's Campus). My research interests surround empathetic responses to social issues/situations and how those responses can differentiate greatly depending on context.

Marshall Howard

BSc Y3

I am a third-year Honours student in Psychology, specializing in Cognitive developmental Neuroscience, and pursuing a minor in Ethics. While in the MISC Lab, I aim to learn how empathy and other socioemotional processes can shape human relationships. I hope to explore how this information can be used to aid in real world environments, particularly in patient care and across the lifespan.

Grace Crocker

BSc Y2

I am a fourth-year Honours Specialization Psychology student at Western University. My research interests centre around empathy and compassion, particularly what influences our willingness to engage with other people's experiences and when we choose to distance ourselves emotionally.

Zafer Alabbas

BSc Y2

I am a second-year Honours Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience BSc student with a strong interest in brain-behavior relationships and the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying socioemotional processes. I hope to deepen my understanding of these processes and explore how this knowledge can be applied to understanding individual differences, mental health, and human behavior.

Alison Guo

BMSc Y2

I am a second-year Medical Sciences student at Western University. My research interests focus on how emotions influence the way we understand and respond to others, specifically what drives us to engage with others emotionally and how this relates to caregiving and interpersonal relationships.

Alumni

Emil Dzhunushaliev

MSc(SPDP)

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.

Mehak Bhatia

BA(Huron University)

My research interests lie in understanding individual differences in personality and learning more about attitudes, norms and maladaptive behaviours.

Shagun Chander

BMSc

I am a fourth-year BMSc student at Western University. In the MISC Lab, I hope to learn more about socioemotional processes and contribute to research on 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.

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).

Dementia Caregiving

An urgent health issue within Canada and around the world is the emerging number of individuals who care for a loved one diagnosed with an age-related neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer's disease, that can lead to dementia. These informal caregivers invest substantial time and energy assisting their loved one with activities of daily living, and may experience adverse health and well-being outcomes due to the increasing demands. The lab is dedicated to examining how dementia caregivers exhibit resiliency characteristics within the caregiving role, in addition to the transition out of caregiving. We take a psychosocial and socioemotional functioning approach to examining caregivers and people living with dementia, focusing on emotional functioning assessment techniques that may help identify resiliency to stress and adaptation in the caregiving role.

Selected Publications

Media

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Postdoctoral Fellows

Graduate Students

Undergraduate Research Assistants