The Egocentric Morality Lab’s research program has been supported by multiple competitive grants investigating motivated moral cognition, self-interest bias, and fairness perception across moral and institutional contexts. Together, these projects form a cumulative research agenda on the psychological foundations of moral objectivity and distortion.
Current Grant
Perceived Fairness and Self-Interest Bias in Algorithmic and Human Decision-Making: Psychological Foundations for Trustworthy AI
Grant No. 2025/57/B/HS6/00608
Funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland
This grant investigates how self-interest shapes perceptions of fairness in both algorithmic and human decision-making. While AI systems can meet formal fairness standards, public trust depends on how those decisions are psychologically interpreted. The project examines the mechanisms underlying egocentric bias in fairness judgments and tests strategies to reduce motivated distortions in high-stakes institutional contexts. Together, the findings contribute to a psychologically grounded framework for trustworthy and human-centered AI.
Previous Grants
Egocentric Judgements of Moral character: Mechanisms, Individual Differences and Debiasing strategies
Grant No. 2021/43/D/HS6/02013
Funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland
This grant investigated how self-interest distorts moral character judgments and why such distortions feel subjectively objective. The project identified cognitive and motivational mechanisms underlying egocentric moral bias, examined the role of automatic versus controlled processing, and tested debiasing strategies designed to promote more impartial evaluation. It also explored how individual differences, such as moral identity, narcissism, and dispositional greed, shape susceptibility to moral distortion. The findings established the theoretical foundation for subsequent research on motivated fairness cognition in institutional and algorithmic contexts.
Looking for mediators and moderators of attitude-driven affects as factors shaping moral character attributions.
Grant No. 2018/29/B/HS6/00658
Funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland
This grant examined how pre-existing attitudes shape moral character judgments. Challenging models that focus solely on reasoning or emotion, the project demonstrated that positive and negative evaluations of a person systematically bias moral attributions. It identified key mediators (e.g., selective interpretation of information) and moderators (e.g., cognitive load, time pressure, motivational factors) that determine when attitudes exert the strongest influence. The findings provided the conceptual foundation for later work on egocentric bias and motivated moral cognition.
Human and nonhuman agents as a source of social pressure for judgments of moral character
Funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland & the European Association of Social Psychology
This project investigated how social conformity shapes moral character judgments in the presence of both human and nonhuman agents. Extending classic research on social influence, it examined whether individuals conform to AI-controlled agents and avatars as strongly as they do to human groups. Using adaptations of the Asch paradigm in real and virtual environments, the project tested how perceived agency and social pressure alter moral evaluations. The findings provided early insight into how human–AI interaction influences moral judgment, informing later research on fairness and algorithmic decision-making.