publications
Papers in Progress
​Law, K., Syropoulos, S., Young L., and O'Connor B.B. What We Owe the Present: The Perceived Morality of Longtermism and Helping Distant Future People. Under review.
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Syropoulos, S., Law, K., Young L., and O'Connor B.B. Beyond Seven Generations: Mapping and Expanding the Temporal Horizon of Intergenerational Concern. Under review.
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Fowler, Z., Law, K., Bontkes, O., Palombo, D., and O'Connor, B.B. Co-imagination fosters shared emotions of future experiences. Under review.
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​Law, K., Syropoulos, S., Signorini, A., Young L., and O'Connor B.B. Why Global Poverty in the Present Matters for Intergenerational Concern and the Future of Humanity. Under review.​​
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Vollberg, M.C., O'Connor, B.B., Vuilleumier, P., Sander, D., and Cikara, M. Place-related neural activity sets the stage for empathy. Under review.
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Publications
Law, K., Syropoulos, S., Coleman, M., Gainsburg, I., and O'Connor B.B. Moral future-thinking: Does the moral circle stand the test of time? Accepted at PSPB.
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Law, K., Syropoulos, S., O'Connor B.B., and Young L. The Probabilistic Price of Life Across Time: Generational and Probabilistic Distance Render a Life Today Worth More than Ten Tomorrow. Accepted at PSPB.
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Fowler, Z. & O'Connor, B.B. (2024, Sept 19). Collaboratively imagining the future can bring people closer together in the present. The Conversation.
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Fowler, Z., Palombo, D., Madan, C. R., & O’Connor, B.B. (2024). Collaborative imagination synchronizes representations of the future and fosters social connection in the present. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(25), e2318292121.
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Law, K., Amormino, P., Marsh, A., and O'Connor, B.B. (2024). Ethical Reasoning vs. Empathic Bias: A False Dichotomy?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28, 1-4.
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Gregory, A., Bartz, J., O'Connor, B.B., and Sheldon, S. (2023). From memory to motivation: Probing the relationship between episodic simulation, empathy, and helping intentions. Emotion. Advance online publication.
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O’Connor, B.B. and Fowler, Z (2023). How imagination and memory shape the moral mind. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 27, 226-249
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*Tuen, Y. J., Bulley, A., Palombo, D., and O’Connor, B.B. (2023). Social value at a distance: The role of identity and impartiality in social discounting. Cognition, 230, 105283
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Ryan, D., O'Connor, B.B., Schacter, D., and Campbell, K. (2022). Episodic simulation of helping behaviour in younger and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accepted at Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Advance online publication.
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Campbell, D., Tusche, A., and O'Connor, B. B. (2022). Imagination and the prosocial personality: Mapping the effect of episodic simulation on helping across prosocial traits. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 36, 685-698.
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O'Connor, B.B., Campbell, D., Lee, K., and Young, L. (2022). Applying cognitive psychology to philanthropy: Investigating a link between imagination and prosocial behavior through charitable donations using an online relief registry. PLOS One. 17(6): e0269469.
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Sawczak, C., McAndrews, M. P., Fowler, Z., O'Connor, B. B., and Moscovitch, M. (2022). I remember therefore I am: Episodic memory retrieval and self-reported trait empathy judgments in young and older adults and individuals with medial temporal lobe excisions. Cognition, 225, 105124.
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Morris, A., O'Connor, B. B., and Cushman, F. (2022) The role of episodic simulation in motivating commonplace harms. Cognition, 225, 105104.
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Fowler, Z., Law, K. F., and Gaesser, B. (2021) Against empathy bias: The moral value of equitable empathy. Psychological Science, 32, 766-779.
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Law, K. F., Campbell, D., and Gaesser, B. (2021). Biased benevolence: The perceived morality of effective altruism across social distance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48, 426-444.
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Campbell, D., Kidder, W., D'Cruz, J, and Gaesser, B. (2021) Emotion in imaginative resistance. Philosophical Psychology, 34, 895-937.
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Vollberg, M.C., Gaesser, B., and Cikara, M. (2021) Episodic simulation increases empathy for in-group and out-group members. Cognition, 209, 104558.
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Gaesser, B., and Fowler, Z. (2020, December 22) The morality of feeling equal empathy for strangers and family alike. The Conversation.
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Gaesser, B. (2020). Episodic mindreading: Mentalizing guided by scene construction of imagined and remembered events. Cognition, 203, 104325.
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Gaesser, B., Shimura, Y., and Cikara, M. (2020) Episodic simulation reduces intergroup bias in prosocial intentions and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 118, 683-705.
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Sawczak, C., McAndrews, M. P., Gaesser, B., and Moscovitch, M. (2019) Episodic simulation and empathy in older adults and patients with unilateral medial temporal lobe excision. Neuropsychologia, 135, 1-14.
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Gaesser, B., Hirschfeld-Kroen, J., Wasserman, E., Horn, M., and Young, L. (2019) A role for the medial temporal lobe subsystem in guiding prosociality: The effect of episodic processes on willingness to help others. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 14, 397-410.
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Gaesser, B., Keeler, K., and Young, L. (2018). Moral imagination: facilitating prosocial decision-making through scene imagery and theory of mind. Cognition, 171, 180-193.
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*Gaesser, B., and Ford, J. H. A potential benefit to memories of terrorism. Scientific American, April 3, 2018.
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​*Ford, J. H., Gaesser, B., Dibase, H., Berro, T., Young, L., and Kensinger, E. (2018). Heroic memory: Remembering the details of others’ heroism in the aftermath of a traumatic public event can foster our own prosocial response. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 32, 47-54.
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​Gaesser, B., Dodds, H., and Schacter, D. L. (2017). Effects of aging on the relation between episodic simulation and prosocial intentions. Memory, 25:9, 1272-1278.
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Gaesser, B., DiBiase, H. D., and Kensinger, E. A. (2017). A role for affect in the link between episodic simulation and prosociality. Memory, 25:8, 1052-1062.
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Gaesser, B., Horn, M., and Young, L (2015). When can imagining the self increase willingness to help others? Investigating whether the self-referential nature of episodic simulation fosters prosociality. Social Cognition.
Gaesser, B., and Schacter, D. L. (2014). Episodic simulation and episodic memory can increase intentions to help others. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 111, 4415-4420.
Madore, K., Gaesser, B., and Schacter, D. L. (2014). Constructive episodic simulation: Dissociable effects of specificity induction on remembering, imagining, and describing in young and older adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40, 609-622.
Gaesser, B. (2013). Constructing memory, imagination, and empathy: A cognitive neuroscience
perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, Special Issue: Examining the Role of Memory in Social Cognition, 3, 1-6.
Gaesser, B., Spreng, R. N., Martin, V. C., Addis, D. R., and Schacter, D. L. (2013).
Imagining the future: evidence for a hippocampal contribution to constructive processing. Hippocampus, 23, 1150-1161.
Schacter, D. L., Gaesser, B., and Addis, D. R. (2013). Remembering the past and imagining the future in the elderly. Gerontology, 59, 143-151.
Schacter, D. L., Chamberlain, J., Gaesser, B., and Gerlach, K. D. (2012). Neuroimaging of true, false, and imaginary memories: Findings and implications. In L. Nadel, & W. P. Sinnott-Armstrong, (Eds.), Memory and Law (pp. 233-262). New York: Oxford University Press.
Gaesser, B., Sacchetti, D. C., Addis, D. R., and Schacter, D. L. (2011). Characterizing age-related changes in remembering the past and imagining the future.
Psychology and Aging, 26, 80-84.
Schacter, D. L., Gaesser, B., and Addis, D. R. (2010). Age-related changes in the episodic simulation of past and future events. In A. S. Benjamin (Ed.), Successful remembering and successful forgetting: A festchrift in honor of Robert A. Bjork (pp. 509-529). London, UK: Psychology Press.
Schacter, D. L., and Gaesser, B. (2009). Memory and reality. Nature Neuroscience, 12, 367.
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*Co-first authorship
^Co-senior authorship
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For publications and additional information see Google Scholar and Research Gate.