معرفی
Dr. Julian Scheffer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, affiliated with the Motivational Influences and Social Cognition (MISC) Lab. His research focuses on socioemotional processes such as empathy and compassion, examining their role in building interpersonal and intergroup connections. Specific interests include how mental effort perceptions, neural damage, and neurodegeneration affect empathetic capacity, particularly in contexts like caregiving for neurodegenerative disease patients, political rivalries, and allyship in social justice movements.
Education: HBSc (University of Toronto Scarborough), MA (University of Iowa), PhD (Pennsylvania State University), Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of California Berkeley).
Research Interests:
- Socioemotional processes in challenging social contexts
- Neurodegenerative disease caregiving dynamics
- Cognitive costs of compassion
- Political and intergroup empathy
Lab Activities: Active in training graduate students (SPDP, CDBS, CSP programs) and undergraduates. Recent studies include randomized control trials on assistive technology for dementia caregivers and investigations into empathy's role in addressing social injustices.
Affiliations: Member of the University of Western Ontario's Department of Psychology, associated with the Faculty of Social Science.
