Julian Wills

I am a PhD student at New York University applying methods from neuroscience and computational social science to shed light on prosocial behavior and moral psychology. My current work with Jay Van Bavel focuses on (1) the neurocognitive processes that guide (and obstruct) group cooperation and (2) how morality and emotion shape political beliefs and behaviors. I received my BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia under the mentorship of Jonathan Haidt, Jamie Morris, and Brian Nosek. This summer I will be interning with Facebook's User Experience Research division.

Research

Here are some projects I've been involved in recently.

Dissociable Contributions of the Prefrontal Cortex in Group-Based Cooperation
(Under review) | PsyArXiv Preprint | OSF page

Summary: Research has been conflicted as to whether group cooperation relies on intuition (rapid, heuristic processing) or deliberation (slower, controlled processing). We recruit a sample of lesion patients with brain damage implicated in these processes to weigh in on this debate.
Registered Replication Report: Rand, Greene & Nowak (2012)

Perspectives on Psychological Science | Link | PDF | OSF page

Summary: Recent research has (provocatively) suggested that group cooperation relies on on intuition (rapid, heuristic processing) rather than deliberation (slower, controlled processing). We participated in an international, multi-lab collaboration in an attempt to replicate one of these findings.