Harvard Club of Santa Barbara

Harvard Speakers Bureau:

Harvard Professor Cushman will speak on
“The Paradox of Moral Value” to the consortium of Western Harvard Clubs on Thursday, December 2 at 12 noon PST. 

Professor Cushman is a professor of psychology and directs the Moral Psychology Research Laboratory. He is an extremely engaging and energetic speaker,  and his research and teaching have won multiple awards. Professor Cushman will speak on morality and social behavior in decision making.  This lecture is made possible by the HAA and the Western Harvard Clubs.

To see a 4 minute video of Professor Cushman speaking about his research, go to

Fiery Cushman: Studying harm

When you sign up below you will receive the Zoom information a few days before the event.

For two decades neuroscientists have been studying how the brain makes moral decisions—for instance, whether to lie, cheat or steal.  For the most part, the answer has been: The same way it makes ordinary decisions, like whether to eat a steak or a salad.  But something doesn’t seem right about this.  It certainly feels like morality constrains us in a way that is different from, and more powerful than, or ordinary preferences.  Professor Cushman’s laboratory has been working to solve this paradox of moral value.

Professor Cushman studies how people make decisions, with a special emphasis on moral decisions.  His work has addressed the structure and function of punishment, the aversion to performing harmful actions, and how candidate actions spontaneously come to mind for consideration.  He received is BA and PhD from Harvard and taught for several years at Brown University prior to joining the faculty at Harvard.