Psych North 376 ASU Tempe Campus
Tempe, AZ 85287-1104
Mail code: 1104
Campus: Tempe
Long Bio
Merging her backgrounds in Religious Studies and Social Psychology, her research focuses on the social perception of non-human agents (e.g., God, robots, viruses) and how these perceptions are associated with moral decision-making, values, social attitudes, and prosocial behavior. Her interdisciplinary research projects include collaborations with robotics engineers and computer scientists aimed at programming moral integrity in autonomous systems. Her research has been funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton World Charity, The Issachar Fund, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation. She received Religions journal’s Young Investigator Award in 2021 and has authored over 50 publications which have appeared in outlets such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Perspectives on Psychological Science. She currently serves as an associate editor for Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
Education
Ph.D. Psychology, Arizona State University 2012
M.A. Religious Studies, Arizona State University 2005
Kathryn Johnson is interested in the social perception of non-human agents across different religious and cultural worldviews. Drawing inspiration from her background in religious studies and social psychology, she has found that people in diverse religious and cultural groups often attribute human-like characteristics to particular non-living human, or non-human agents such as viruses and disease (e.g., cancer as an invading barbarian), living creatures (e.g., pets or totems), technological entities (e.g., androids, drones, self-driving cars), spiritual beings (e.g., God or angels), fetuses, stem cells, or human remains. Her research has primarily focused on the antecedents and outcomes of diverse representations of God as benevolent, authoritarian, or (more abstractly) as a cosmic force. Recently her interest in moral psychology has been extended to investigate the possibility of programming moral integrity in autonomous systems. She is also interested in helping students with divergent religious and cultural worldviews to develop metacognitive strategies to improve their academic achievement.
