I am a third-year PhD student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow working with Tania Lombrozo at Princeton University.
I study explanations of social change, inequality, and injustice. How do people explain why inequality exists, and how do they think about their role in ending or preventing future injustice?
Theoretically, my research aims to distinguish moral reasoning ("who is morally to blame for inequality?") from causal reasoning ("what actions or beliefs cause inequality?"), as well as retrospective reasoning ("why does inequality exist?") from prospective reasoning ("how might it end?") in this domain. I study these topics in both adults and children from perspectives of psychology and philosophy.
I am also passionate about inclusive, justice-oriented teaching.
Publications
How do people explain social change?
Lewry, C., Tsai, G., & Lombrozo, T. (under review). Are ethical explanations explanatory? Meta-ethical beliefs shape judgments about explanations for social change.
Lewry, C., Asifriyaz, S., & Lombrozo, T. (in prep). Intuitive theories of moral progress.
What makes kids and adults curious?
Lewry, C., Gorucu, S., Liquin, E.G., & Lombrozo, T. (2023). Minimally-counterintuitive stimuli trigger greater curiosity than merely improbable stimuli. Cognition, 230, 105286. (PDF)
Lewry, C., Curtis, K., Vasilyeva, N., Xu, F., & Griffiths, T. L. (2021). Intuitions about magic track the development of intuitive physics. Cognition, 214,104762. (PDF)
Why do people think humans have a purpose and morally blame them for not fulfilling it?
Lewry, C., Kelemen, D., & Lombrozo, T. ( in press). The moral consequences of teleological beliefs about the human species. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (PDF)
Foster-Hanson, E., Lewry, C., & Lombrozo, T. (in prep). Mothers are for breastfeeding: Functional reasoning about gender categories.