Jason D. Freeman, MS, MLA

Research Interests

Broadly, my research is concerned with how our social environment shapes (and is in turn shaped by) our individual psychology. I explore these questions using quantitative and qualitative methods in cross-cultural psychology, comparing student and general public samples across the United States and Japan. I also have a strong interest in answering research questions using big data methods, utilizing publically available big data sets and cultivating novel large data sets through web scraping modalities. 

Currently, I am examining how cross-cultural differences in relational mobility may explain differences in prosociality between nations. Within this area, I am exploring how extant differences in empathy (empathic concern or positive empathy) between the United States and Japan may lead to differences prosociality, which may be explainable by the influence of relational mobility. I further investigate the relationship between relational mobility and differences in prosociality across nations though a large study in the topic of kindness.

I am also broadly interested in applying theories from evolutionary psychology and human behavioral ecology to my work. I am presently examining the utility of regional differences in pathogen prevalence in shaping racial preferences in mate selection contexts (dating, marriage).

Other interests of mine include medical decision-making and risk perception. As an applied behavioral scientist at Simply Rational Gmbh in Berlin, Germany, I have worked with international clients throughout the health-care sector to examine cross-cultural differences in risk perception of medical professionals. In a medical context, I have experience leveraging behavioral economics techniques, such as nudging, to potentially improve outcomes in patients recovering from surgical interventions or managing chronic diseases.

Selected Presentations

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) 2024 - The role of relational mobility in explaining cross-cultural differences in prosocial response to social exclusion (poster)

Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP) 2023 - Empathic Concern as a Social-Ecological Adaptation: The Role of Relational Mobility (poster)

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) 2023 - Pathogen Prevalence as a Predictor of Racial Preferences in Dating and Marriage (poster)