Lab News
2026
  • September​
    • We attended the inaugural International Society for Moral Psychology (ISMP) Conference at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. ISMP is the first international society dedicated specifically to the study of moral psychology, and Dr. Yucel serves as a member of its Executive Board.​
    • ​​Dr. Yucel's paper titled "Global Developmental Research: Ethics and Equity" was accepted for publication in Current Directions in Psychological Science!
    • Dr. Yucel had a paper published in Political Psychology on ideological (a)-symmetries in moral judgements of online hate.
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Flyer for the Inaugural International Society for Moral Psychology Conference, held at Cornell University, September 17-19, 2026
  • August​
    • Dr. Yucel received a SAGE Early Career Trajectory Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology! Read more.
    • Graduate Student Kenya Mulwa received MSU's Education Opportunity Fellowship (EOF). Congrats Kenya!
    • Graduate Student Yanzhe (Austin) Zeng started his first year at MSU! Welcome, Austin!
  • July​
    • Dr. Yucel presented a talk at the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) General Meeting in Strasbourg, France. 
    • Dr. Yucel gave an interview to Vox.com about gossiping with our neighbors. Read more here. This interview was also featured on Yahoo!Life. Read it here.
    • Dr. Yucel had a commentary paper on the developmental roots of norm enforcement in peer culture published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences​! Read more here.
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A group picture from the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) General Meeting in Strasbourg, France.
  • June
    • ​​Dr. Yucel was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP), a scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of the social psychology discipline. This honor recognizes Dr. Yucel's substantial contributions to social psychology as an empirical science. She joins a select group of researchers that grows by less than 5% each year. Read more.​
    • ​Dr. Yucel's symposium presentation on "Seeing the harm in unfairness: The role of harm salience on children’s and adults’ perceptions of unfairness" was accepted to the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) Conference!​
  • May
    • Incoming graduate student Yanzhe (Austin) Zeng was awarded a CSS Early Start Research Fellowship for Summer 2026 by the College of Social Science! Congrats, Austin!​​​​
  • ​April
    • ​Undergraduate students Avery Shippe and Kennedy Kaliszewski and Postbacc research assistant Emily Foltz presented their poster at the 2026 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF)! Congrats team!!
    • ​Dr. Yucel a had a paper published in Social Cognition on the role of harm salience on children's and adults' perceptions of unfairness! Read more here.
    • ​Dr. Yucel a had a paper accepted in Behavioral Sciences on children's evaluations of merit-based unfairness! Read more here.
    • Dr. Yucel gave an invited talk at the Moral Fragmentations and Boundaries Conference at Pennsylvania State University! Read more here.
    • Dr. Yucel co-organized the Conducting Cognitive Development Research During Challenging Times Preconference, and chaired a panel on Global developmental research at the Cognitive Development Society (CDS) Conference.
    • Dr. Yucel gave an invited talk at Boston University's Developmental Science Colloquium.​​
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Undergraduate students Avery Shippe and Kennedy Kaliszewski and Postbacc research assistant Emily Foltz celebrating a successful presentation of their poster at the 2026 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF)!
  • March
    • ​Dr. Yucel received the 2026 Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science. Congrats!
      • This award is presented to outstanding APS Members in the earliest stages of their research career post-PhD.
      • It recognizes researchers whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions.
      • Rising Star individuals are evaluated for their promise of excellence in research based on criteria such as publications, recognitions, discoveries, broad impact, and a commitment to diversity in science.​
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The full list of APS Rising Stars can be found here: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/members/awards-and-honors/aps-rising-stars/news-rising-stars
  • February
    • Dr. Yucel was an invited speaker at the Religion and Spirituality Preconference at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) annual convention. 
    • Emily Foltz (MSU '25) got into Western Michigan University's Occupational Therapy Doctoral program! Congrats, Emily!
    • Dr. Yucel talked to the University of Minnesota's Early Language & Experience (ELE) Lab!
    • Dr. Yucel gave two talks at Michigan State University—one for the Clinical Psychology Brownbag and another for the MSU Psychology Club. ​​​​
  • ​January
    • The Moral Minds Lab is excited to partner with the Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing, MI! Our team will be hosting fun, interactive science games at the science center to learn how children think about and engage with their social world. While children participate in these activities, families can watch real research in action and chat with scientists about the latest ideas in child development at our Mini Minds Corner. You’ll see us as part of an interactive exhibit. Catch us on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to watch real-life research unfold and, if you’d like, join in on the fun!​
2025
  • December
    • Dr. Yucel gave an invited talk to the University of Michigan's developmental psychology area!

    • Dr. Yucel gave an invited talk at her undergrad institution, Ozyegin University in Istanbul, Turkey!
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    • Dr. Yucel gave an invited talk at  MEF University's Tepe Morality Lab in Istanbul, Turkey.​​
  • November
    • Dr. Yucel was one of the invited speakers of the Moral Psychology Research Group’s online gathering. Missed her talk? worries. You can watch the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nei1mHOeOu0​

    • ​Dr. Yucel gave a talk to MSU's Psi Chi Society on how people cooperate, make moral decisions, and how to get involved in exciting psychology research.
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    • We hosted our first external speaker at our lab meeting! Many thanks to Dr. Kaitlyn Werner for telling us about her cool work on emotion regulation!

  • October
    • Our research was covered in MSU Psychology news! Read here. ​
  • September
    • Dr. Yucel had a paper published in PLOS One describing the methodology of the second wave of data collection by the Developing Belief Network! Read more here.

    • Dr. Yucel gave a colloquium talk to the New Mexico State University's Psychology department!

    • Dr. Yucel gave a talk to the MSU's Industrial-Organizational Psychology area!
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    • One of our undergraduate research assistants, Avery Shippe, received Pathways to Research funding from MSU!
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  • August
    • Dr. Yucel won two manuscript awards from the Culture, Religion, and the Development of Cooperation group! Stay tuned!
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    • A new semester started at MSU and we held our first ever lab meeting!
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  • July 
    • Dr. Yucel had a paper on how emphasizing the salience of harm changes children's and adults' evaluations of unfairness accepted for publication in Social Cognition​!

    • Dr. Yucel had a paper on children's and adults' judgments of pro- and anti-environmental actions accepted for publication in the Journal of Cognition & Development! Read more here.

  • May 
    • Dr. Yucel had a commentary paper on the developmental roots of norm enforcement in peer culture accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain Sciences​!

    • Moral Minds Lab was at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Conference! Dr. Yucel presented two talks and three panels.​

  • March 
    • Dr. Yucel had a paper published on 4- to 8-year-old children's judgments of morally ambiguous characters at Journal of Experimental Child Psychology!  Read more here.​
  • February 
    • Dr. Yucel had a paper published on whether people would prefer to be the topic of gossip at Self and Identity! Read more here.
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    • Dr. Yucel gave an invited talk at the Evolutionary Psychology preconference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) conference!​​​​​

  • January - Dr. Yucel gave a talk at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) Professional Development Workshop!​​​​
2024
  • December
    • The lab is born!
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    • Dr. Yucel gave a talk at Istanbul Medipol University in Turkey!
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    • ​Dr. Yucel's symposium on "Psychology of religious development: A cross-cultural analysis" was accepted to the 2025 Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Conference!​

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