Prosocial behavior across distance in special populations.
A central goal of social psychology has been to understand and address parochial biases in altruism — favoring close others over distant ones and individuals over collectives. While earlier research emphasized empathy as a key driver of prosocial behavior, recent perspectives in psychology and philosophy argue that empathy is too biased to promote altruism toward distant others, advocating for reasoning to guide impact-maximizing altruism instead. However, studies on real-world altruists, such as living organ donors and career philanthropists, reveal that empathy remains a critical force for prosocial behavior.
Our special population research reconciles these conflicting accounts by examining the factors that promote altruistic equality and impact among exceptionally altruistic and ordinary adults alike. We find that empathy and reasoning independently and synergistically enhance prosociality, challenging the empathy-reasoning dichotomy and pointing towards a more complete theoretical integration of affect and cognition in prosocial behavior.
​SELECT PUBLICATIONS​​
*Denotes Joint First-Authorship and Equal Contribution. †Denotes mentorship or co-mentorship of first author.
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Bae, S., †Syropoulos, S., †Law, K. F., O’Connor, B. B., Amormino, P., Crimston, C., Bastian, B., Marsh, A., & Young, L. (2026). Altruistic, more than reputational concerns, drive legacy motives, values, and aspirations across the world. Personality and Individual Differences, 257, 113804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2026.113804.
Link(s) to Press Coverage: Nautilus Magazine
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Bauer, G., †Law, K. F., Young, L., Amormino, P., Marsh, A., O’Connor, B. B., & †Syropoulos, S. (2026). Concern for future generations predicts costly present-day prosociality and extraordinary altruism: A case study of organ donorship. British Journal of Social Psychology, 65(2), e70070. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70070
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​​​​​Law, K. F., Syropoulos, S., Amormino, P., Marsh, A., Young, L., & O’Connor, B. B. (2026). Reasoning and empathy are not competing but complementary features of altruism. PNAS Nexus, 5(2), pgag015. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag015
Link(s) to Press Coverage: The Conversation
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Capuano, K.*, †Law, K. F.*, & Syropoulos, S. (2026). From tribe to humanity: How ingroup expansion can fuel distant altruism. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 20(1), e70117. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.70117
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​​​Law, K. F., Syropoulos, S., Amormino, P., Marsh, A., Young, L., & O’Connor, B. B. (2025). Mapping the moral architecture of effective and extraordinary altruism. PNAS Nexus, 4(10), pgaf326. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf326
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Law, K. F.* & Amormino, P.*, Marsh, A. A., & O’Connor, B. B. (2024). Ethical reasoning versus empathic bias: A false dichotomy? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.10.006​​
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ONGOING WORK
*Denotes Joint First-Authorship and Equal Contribution. †Denotes mentorship or co-mentorship of first author.
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Amormino, P., Li, P., Gao, J., Law, K. F., Kim, A.Y., Wu, J., Kozak-Williams, M. & Marsh, A.A. (2026). Extraordinary altruists are more prosocial but not more moral. Under Review.
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