Ohio State social psychology professor Kurt Gray has received the SESP Career Trajectory Award for his pioneering research in the field. Announced by the Society of Experimental and Social Psychology in October, the award recognizes top scientific researchers in the early or mid-stages of their careers whose work is “uniquely creative and influential.”
Gray, the Department of Psychology’s inaugural Weary Foundation Endowed Chair in Social Psychology, received the honor at the SESP annual conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
“This award means a lot because my work often goes against the grain,” he said.
As director of the Deepest Beliefs Lab at Ohio State, Gray researches the psychology of morality, politics, religion and artificial intelligence. Among other topics, his work includes studies on the moral expertise of large language models, the value of personal experiences in bridging divides and our tendency to misperceive political opponents as immoral. As the faculty director of C-SPAM, Gray also connects and supports scientists who research polarization and misinformation.
But part of what stands out about his work is its use beyond the lab.
Gray regularly partners with community-oriented organizations like Essential Partners and New Pluralists, offering data and models they can use in efforts to heal political and religious divisions. He speaks in houses of worship, offering polarized congregations new ways to bridge divides. And his new book Outraged: Why We Fight about Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground introduces popular audiences to the science of moral outrage and how we can better connect with the “other side.”
“I’ve tried to challenge old assumptions in social psychology and open up new directions—studying how people judge morality, AI, and religion in ways that don’t always fit existing theories,” Gray said.
“That kind of work can feel risky, so it’s meaningful to know that the field values curiosity, new methods, and asking questions that haven’t been asked before.”
Gray is the first Ohio State faculty member to receive the SESP Career Trajectory Award since it began in 2006. Other recent recipients include Elizabeth Dunn (University of British Columbia) and David Amodio (University of Amsterdam) in 2024, Philip Atiba Solomon (Yale University) in 2023 and Aaron Kay (Duke University) and Greg Walton (Stanford University) in 2022.