Abigail A Marsh

Abigail A Marsh is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at Georgetown University. She co-directs the Interdisciplinary PhD Concentration in Cognitive Science and leads the Laboratory on Social & Affective Neuroscience, focusing on the neural and cognitive bases of empathy, altruism, and aggression. Her research spans neuroimaging, behavioral testing, and pharmacology in children and adults.

• Harvard University - Ph.D. (2004) and M.A.
• Dartmouth College - B.A. (1999)

Her work explores the intersection of social neuroscience and moral psychology, particularly the "caring continuum" extremes (extraordinary altruism vs. psychopathy). Recent publications analyze global altruism trends, neural correlates of prosocial behavior, and psychopathy's relationship to brain structure and social discounting. She received the Cozzarelli Prize, Georgetown’s Dean’s Award for Teaching, and the Bunn Award for Faculty Excellence.

Key themes in her research include:

• Neurocomputational models of altruism and antisocial behavior
• Impact of childhood trauma and amygdala function on psychopathy
• Cross-cultural and global behavioral studies
• Interventions targeting primal beliefs to enhance altruism
• Clinical applications for psychopathy treatment

Scientific awards and grants:

• Cozzarelli Prize (PNAS)
• Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching (Georgetown)
• Bunn Award for Faculty Excellence (Georgetown)
• NIH and NSF grants supporting student research in her lab

Her lab has produced groundbreaking studies on extraordinary altruists (e.g., kidney donors) and psychopathy, including a Netflix documentary on altruism and co-founding the nonprofit Psychopathy Is to address research underfunding and stigma.