Current Projects

Operationalization of Moralization: A sistematic and critical review

Collaborators: Juan Pablo Arroyave, Sergio Barbosa, William Jiménez Leal

Moralization is a dynamic psychological process through which behaviors, attitudes, or preferences acquire moral significance. In this project, I examine how researchers have studied moralization by systematically reviewing the strategies used to measure it across more than 100 empirical studies. Our goal is to map the psychological mechanisms that transform ordinary preferences into moral imperatives and to critically evaluate the conceptual and methodological coherence of current approaches.

Folk conception of the good life

Collaborators: William Jiménez, Santiago Amaya

People’s ideas about the “good life” influence their aspirations, well-being, and consumption behavior. In this project, I study how laypeople conceptualize a good and successful life, identify underlying psychological dimensions, and examine how these beliefs shape emotions, life satisfaction, and environmental choices.

Self-Control in Context

Collaborators: Juan Pablo Bermúdez, María Alejandra Grisales, William Jiménez Leal

Stigma around addiction often emerges from intuitive beliefs about agency, responsibility, and control. In this project, I study how people conceptualize addiction, what level of control they attribute to individuals with addictions, and how these notions predict moral judgment and discrimination.

Folk conception of addictions

Collaborators: Federico Burdman, María Fernanda Rangel

Individuals with addictions have been harshly discriminated against and stigmatized. In this project, we study the intuitive ideas people hold about individuals with addictions, whether they can control their behavior, and if they are responsible for their actions. These ideas may explain the negative stereotypes surrounding people with addictions.

Social evaluation

Collaborators: Sergio Barbosa, William Jiménez Leal

How do people form impressions of others? In this project, I examine the structure of social evaluation—mapping how traits like morality, competence, and warmth combine to guide judgments and decisions about whom to trust, avoid, or cooperate with. My work focuses on identifying the relative weight of moral character in social cognition.