My research lies at the intersection of psychology, technology, and ethics. I study how emerging technologies—especially advanced AI—will reshape our values, our decisions, and the boundaries of our moral concern, and why societies so often misjudge the risks and opportunities ahead.

More about my research

What if AI systems become so sophisticated that they have minds that matter morally—or what if society comes to believe this, even if they don't? I study digital minds: whether advanced AI could one day deserve moral consideration, and how people, norms, and institutions will respond as AI increasingly seems conscious—regardless of whether it truly is.

What cognitive biases could lead to global catastrophic risk? My work examines why people and institutions systematically underestimate and underinvest in managing catastrophic risks from advanced technologies like AI and biotechnology, despite their potential magnitude.

What drives or inhibits moral circle expansion and effective altruism? I study how people extend moral consideration beyond their immediate circles—to distant populations, future generations, and non-human entities like animals—and why they so often fail to help others as effectively as they could.

Podcast appearances

Publications

Artificial Intelligence Global Catastrophic Risk Effective Altruism Animals Ethics Bioethics

Artificial Intelligence

Human-AI coexistence
Caviola, L., Keeling, G., Street, W., & Shevlin, H. (2026)
Denying personhood to AI: An analysis of U.S. state legislation on AI legal status
Smith, A., Caviola, L., & Alexander, H. (2026)
AI consciousness will divide society
Caviola, L. (2026)
The ML community must prepare for AI consciousness, perceived or real
Caviola, L., Sebo, J., & Mindermann, S. (2026)
Futures with digital minds: Expert forecasts in 2025
Caviola, L. & Saad, B. (2025)
Podcast Website Highlights
What will society think about AI consciousness? Lessons from the animal case
Caviola, L., Sebo, J., & Birch, J. (2025)
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
PDF
Large language models exhibit speciesist bias against animals
Jotautaitė, M., Caviola, L., Brewster, D. A., & Hagendorff, T. (2026)
Nature Communications
The societal response to potentially sentient AI
Caviola, L. (2025)
Moral concern for AI
Allen, C., Lewis, J. & Caviola, L. (2026)
Public skepticism about AI consciousness
Ladak, A. & Caviola, L. (2025)
Subjective experience in AI systems: What do AI researchers and the public believe?
Dreksler, D., Caviola, L., Allen, C., Lewis, J., Mays, K., Sebo, J., Chalmers, D. (2025)
The social science of digital minds: Research agenda
Caviola, L. (2024)
Increasing concern for digital beings through LLM persuasion
Allen, C. & Caviola, L. (2024)
Digital minds takeoff scenarios
Saad, B. & Caviola, L. (2024)
AI can outperform humans in predicting correlations between personality items
Schoenegger, P., Greenberg, S., Lewis, J., & Caviola, L. (2024)
Nature Communications Psychology
PDF

Global Catastrophic Risk

Lay beliefs about the badness, likelihood, and importance of human extinction
Coleman, M.*, Caviola, L.*, Lewis, J., & Goodwin, G. (2026) *equal contribution
Scientific Reports
Does one person make a difference? Many-one effects in judgments of prosocial action
Lewis, J., Srna, S., Salu, J., Allen, C., Morrissey, E., Wilks, M., Winter, C., & Caviola, L. (2026)
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Crying wolf: Warning about societal risks can be reputationally risky
Caviola, L.*, Coleman, M.*, Lewis, J.*, & Winter, C. (2024) *equal contribution
Preprint
Summary
Communicating tail-risk credibly
Neto, L. M., Lewis, J., & Caviola, L. (2025)
It only takes one: Unilateral decisions arise from failures of reasoning
Lewis, J., Allen, C., & Caviola, L. (2024)
Temporal distance reduces ingroup favoritism
Schubert, S., Caviola, L., Savulescu, J. & Faber, N.S. (2025)
Essays on Longtermism. Oxford University Press
Population ethical intuitions
Caviola, L., Althaus, D., Mogensen, A., & Goodwin, G. (2022)
Cognition
PDF
The psychology of existential risk: Moral judgments about human extinction
Schubert, S.*, Caviola, L.*, & Faber, N.S. (2019) *equal contribution
Scientific Reports
PDF

Effective Altruism

Increasing the effectiveness of charitable giving with AI-generated persuasion
White, J. P., Allen, C., Caviola, L., Costello, T., & Rand, D. (2025)
Effective altruism and the human mind
Schubert, S. & Caviola, L. (2024)
Oxford University Press
PDF Audiobook
Boosting the impact of charitable giving with donation bundling and micromatching
Caviola, L. & Greene, J.D. (2023)
Science Advances
Giving Multiplier Project Syndicate LA Times
Investigating (sequential) unit asking: An unsuccessful quest for scope sensitivity in willingness to donate judgments
Maier, M., Caviola, L., Schubert, S., & Harris, A. J. (2023)
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
How many students are familiar with and sympathetic towards effective altruism?
Caviola, L., Morrissey, E., & Lewis, J. (2022)
What psychological traits predict interest in effective altruism?
Caviola, L., Althaus, D., Schubert, S., & Lewis, J. (2022)
The psychology of (in)effective altruism
Caviola, L., Schubert, S., & Greene, J.D. (2021)
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
PDF
Donors vastly underestimate differences in charities' effectiveness
Caviola, L.*, Schubert, S.*, Teperman, E., Moss, D., Greenberg, S., & Faber, N.S. (2020) *equal contribution
Judgment and Decision Making
The many obstacles to effective giving
Caviola, L.*, Schubert, S.*, & Nemirow, J. (2020) *equal contribution
Judgment and Decision Making
Evaluability bias in charitable giving: Saving administration costs or saving lives?
Caviola, L., Faulmüller, N, Everett, J.A.C., Savulescu, J., & Kahane, G. (2014)
Judgment and Decision Making
Doing good by doing nothing? The role of social norms in explaining default effects in altruistic contexts
Everett, J.A.C., Caviola, L., Kahane, G., Savulescu, J., & Faber, N. (2014)
European Journal of Social Psychology

Animals

Saving people or pets? Speciesism and family partiality across development
Wilks, M.*, Caviola, L.*, Rottman, J., Allen, C., Kahane, G., & Bloom, P. (2026) *equal contribution
When development constricts our moral circles
Marshall, J., Wilks, M., Caviola, L., & Neldner, K. (2025)
Nature Human Behavior
PDF Summary
Becoming speciesist: How children and adults differ in valuing animals by species and cognitive capacity
Caviola, L.*, Wilks, M.*, et al. (2025) *equal contribution
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
PDF
Children value animals more than adults do: A conceptual replication and extension
Paruzel-Czachura, M., Maier, M., Warmuz, R., Wilks, M., & Caviola, L. (2024)
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
PDF
Humans first: Why people value animals less than humans
Caviola, L., Schubert, S., Kahane, G., & Faber, N.S. (2022)
Cognition
PDF
Are the folk utilitarian about animals?
Kahane, G., & Caviola, L. (2022)
Philosophical Studies
Children prioritize humans over animals less than adults do
Wilks, M.*, Caviola, L.*, Kahane, G., & Bloom, P. (2021) *equal contribution
Psychological Science
PDF
Utilitarianism for animals, Kantianism for people? Harming animals and humans for the greater good
Caviola, L., Kahane, G., Everett, J.A.C, Teperman, E., Savulescu, J., & Faber, N.S. (2020)
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Watch Talk
The moral standing of animals: Towards a psychology of speciesism
Caviola, L., Everett, J.A.C., & Faber, N.S. (2019)
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Speciesism Scale (English) Speziesismus Skala (German) Speciesisme Schaal (Dutch) 種差別尺度 (Japanese) סולם ספסיזם (Hebrew) Türcülük Ölçeği (Turkish) مقیاس گونه‌پرستی (Persian)
Liking but devaluing animals: Emotional and deliberative paths to speciesism
Caviola, L. & Capraro, V. (2020)
Social Psychological and Personality Science
PDF
Speciesism, generalized prejudice, and perceptions of prejudiced others
Everett, J.A.C., Caviola, L., Savulescu, J., & Faber, N.S. (2019)
Group Processes and Intergroup Relations
How we value animals: the psychology of speciesism
Caviola, L. (2019)
Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford

Ethics

Self-defeating utilitarianism: laypeople think that aiming to maximize societal welfare will backfire
Berman, J. Z., Schubert, S., & Caviola, L. (2026)
Signaling (in)tolerance: the reputational implications of metaethical relativism and objectivism
Moss, D., Montealegre, A., Bush, L. S., Caviola, L., & Pizarro, D. (2025)
Cognition
PDF
Moral psychology and utilitarianism
Caviola, L. & Greene, J. (2024)
An Introduction to Utilitarianism
Virtues for real-world utilitarians
Schubert, S. & Caviola, L. (2021)
An Introduction to Utilitarianism
Should you save the more useful? The effect of generality on moral judgments about rescue and indirect effects
Caviola, L., Schubert, S., & Mogensen, A. (2020)
Cognition
PDF
Beyond sacrificial harm: positive and negative dimensions of utilitarian psychology
Kahane, G., Everett, J.A.C., Earp, B.D., Caviola, L., Faber, N.S., Crockett, M.J., & Savulescu, J. (2017)
Psychological Review
SPSP Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize (2018)
Oxford Utilitarianism Scale (English) Oxford Utilitarismus Skala (German)
Moral hypocrisy in economic games—how prosocial behavior is shaped by social expectations
Caviola, L. & Faulmüller, N. (2014)
Frontiers in Psychology
How stress influences our morality
Caviola, L. & Faber, N.S. (2014)
The Inquisitive Mind

Bioethics

Will human-animal chimeras cause moral confusion? Exploring public attitudes
Devolder, K., Rottman, J., Xiao, Q., Kahane, G., Caviola, L., Yip, L., & Faber, N. (2025)
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry
Recognizing the diversity of cognitive enhancements
Veit, W., Earp, B. D., Faber, N., Bostrom, N., Caouette, J., Mannino, A., Caviola, L., Sandberg, A., & Savulescu, J. (2020)
AJOB Neuroscience
Nudging immunity: the case for opt out vaccination of children in school and day care
Giubilini, A., Caviola, L., Maslen, H., Douglas, T., Nussberger, A. M., Faber, N., Vanderslott, S., Loving, S., Harrison, M., & Savulescu, J. (2019)
HEC Forum
Worth living or worth dying? The views of the general public about allowing disabled children to die
Brick, C., Kahane, G., Wilkinson, D., Caviola, L., & Savulescu, J. (2019)
Journal of Medical Ethics
Is the non-identity problem relevant to public health and policy? An online survey
Doolabh, K., Caviola, L., Savulescu, J., Selgelid, M., & Wilkinson, D. (2019)
BMC Medical Ethics
Zika, contraception and the non-identity problem
Doolabh, K., Caviola, L., Savulescu, J., Selgelid, M., & Wilkinson, D. J. (2017)
Developing World Bioethics
Pills or push-ups? Effectiveness and public perception of pharmacological and non-pharmacological cognitive enhancement
Caviola, L. & Faber, N. (2015)
Frontiers in Psychology
Attitudes towards pharmacological cognitive enhancement – a review
Schelle K. S., Faber, N., Caviola, L., & Hewstone, M. (2014)
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Biases affecting moral intuitions about cognitive enhancement
Caviola, L., Mannino, A., Savulescu, J., & Faulmüller, N. (2014)
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience