Jean Decety

Dr. Jean Decety holds the prestigious John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor title at University of Chicago, serving in the Department of Psychology. His work centers on social neuroscience, particularly morality, empathy, and psychopathy. He directs the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, focusing on neural mechanisms underlying social behavior.

Education & Background: Earned a PhD in Neuroscience-Medicine from University Claude Bernard (France), followed by postdoctoral training at Lund University Hospital and Karolinska Institute (Sweden). Specializes in neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, EEG) applied to social cognition research.

Research Interests: Explores moral judgment development, psychopathic traits in incarcerated populations, empathy deficits, and neural correlates of social decision-making. Recent work examines how moral convictions influence radicalization, violence, and clinical outcomes in healthcare practitioners.

Awards: John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professorship highlights his impactful contributions to social neuroscience. Authored influential books like *The Moral Brain* and *The Social Brain: A Developmental Perspective*.

Grants & Labs: Leads multi-million dollar projects investigating neurobiological bases of morality. Maintains state-of-the-art labs (Kelly Hall 310-315) for structural/functional neuroimaging studies. Collaborates internationally on cross-cultural moral development studies.

Future Directions: Current projects focus on: 1) Early interventions for psychopathic traits in at-risk youth 2) Neuroethical implications of empathy research in healthcare 3) Computational modeling of radicalization processes.