Talk title: Regulating emotion in social and moral contexts

Whether it is flipping through the day’s headlines, gossiping with a coworker, or deciding whether or not to give up their seat on a crowded bus, individuals frequently encounter moral information and make moral decisions. How do individuals affectively engage with moral stimuli, and to what extent do they regulate emotion in moral contexts? To examine these questions, I take a multilevel approach, using both behavioral measures and functional neuroimaging across a wide developmental age range. In particular, I focus on everyday moral decision-making, as it is a context where individuals must balance their emotional responses with internalized moral norms. These factors make it an area where emotion regulation occurs both naturally and to varying degrees of success. In my talk, I will discuss the metacognitive beliefs that people hold about emotion regulation in moral situations, how (and if) individuals regulate emotion in social and moral contexts, and how emotion regulation ability changes as a function of development.