Grégory Fiorio
PhD Student
École Normale Supérieure – PSL University, Paris (France)
About
The aim of my research is to better understand how humans limit the severity of interpersonal and intergroup conflicts. In particular, I am interested in moral judgments and intuitions about what counts as an acceptable use of violence.
I investigate this question within an interdisciplinary framework, drawing on insights and methods from moral psychology, cultural evolutionary theories, and legal anthropology. I particularly value cross-cultural methods (e.g., cross-cultural surveys, systematic analyses of the ethnographic record) and strive to rely on them in my projects whenever possible.
Research Interests
Displaced revenge
Why do humans sometimes seek revenge on innocent third-parties? How can it ever satisfy the victims' desire for justice?
In which environments is displaced revenge most likely?
The moral rules of punishment
Why are humans often morally averse to disproportionate punishment?
Do penal systems around the world reflect the same underlying moral intuitions?
The psychological and evolutionary roots of “just war”
Why are there limits to what is acceptable in war? Is the concept of "just war" a recent cultural development? Are there cross-culturally convergent intuitions about what constitutes acceptable behavior in warfare?
What cognitive and social factors support the emergence of rules governing warfare?