Arunima Sarin

Delighted to share that starting Fall 2023, I’ll join the Department of Psychology at University College London as a Lecturer! I’m thrilled to work alongside scholars who have inspired my work & look forward to expanding my research in this incredible department! @UCLPALS @EP_UCL

Excited to be chairing my first ever symposium today at #SPSP2025! We have a great lineup including @SuraiyaAllidina, @kyleratner, and @leorhackel. Come check it out! @SPSPnews

Happy to share our new paper!! Moral praise signals what is typical and expected, indicating that an action goes above the norms. Ironically, this could lead to decreases in people’s willingness to behave as prosocially in the future (1/4) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01…

Delighted to contribute this article on Causal Reasoning for OECS - special thanks to @mcxfrank @asifa_majid oecs.mit.edu/pub/ee7y4opg

🚨Excited to announce the return of the Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2025! A crowd-pleaser for over 20 years! We have an incredible lineup of speakers! And we're accepting posters; deadline to submit is Oct 17 spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2025-pre…. PS there's a best poster award!

@DAJchicago @xphilosopher @fierycushman Another motivation (and an aspect of this paper that made it particularly fun to work on!) was to think why such a concern with ‘failure of thought’ might be valuable. To do so, we examined recent developments in the literature on consideration sets and what comes to mind!

@DAJchicago @xphilosopher @fierycushman However, as @xphilosopher points out, a key motivation for the paper was to understand how ordinary people think about and respond to negligence. Our work suggests a disconnect between common reactions to negligence and the legal framework guiding punishment for such cases.

Why do we punish people for negligence? New paper argues it is a matter of punishing people for a *failure of thought* -- i.e., for failing to bring certain things to mind By @SarinArunima and @fierycushman, in Psych Review osf.io/preprints/psya…

@xphilosopher @DAJchicago @fierycushman @TeneilleBrown Thanks for sharing our work and for your encouragement, @xphilosopher!! 😃✨

@SarinArunima @DAJchicago @fierycushman @TeneilleBrown Anyway, super excited that you are working on this. It will be awesome to see what you end up doing next

@xphilosopher @DAJchicago @fierycushman @TeneilleBrown Exactly! People naturally think about mental states when they think about negligence but the law asks them to disregard it - which seems hard and unintuitive!

@SarinArunima @DAJchicago @fierycushman Hi Arunima -- Congrats on your wonderful paper! It's true that the doctrine says that jurors are not supposed to consider mental state in negligence cases, but work by @TeneilleBrown finds that jurors actually *do* use mental state in negligence cases sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@levinguever @DAJchicago @xphilosopher @fierycushman You’re right - criminal law does sometimes punish negligence. The question isn’t about that - but rather, what exactly is the punishment for? Is it because of the bad outcome? The failure to take necessary precautions? Or simply because the right thought didn’t come to mind?

@DAJchicago @xphilosopher @SarinArunima @fierycushman I'm not quite sure I follow. Criminal law does sometimes punish for negligence, no? The examples used by Sarin & Cushman at the beginning of the paper seem to me illustrative of such (e.g. forgetting one's child in the car during summer, which may constitute manslaughter).

@DAJchicago @xphilosopher @fierycushman I agree with @xphilosopher that exploring the relationship between legal standards and public perceptions of negligence is fascinating. @TeneilleBrown and I have had some engaging discussions on the topic!

In our latest paper, @fierycushman & I argue that punishing negligence isn’t just about the consequences of bad outcomes or poor planning. Instead, it also involves holding people accountable for ‘failing to have the right thought at the right time’. 💭💡 psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-74…

@ruzick_adam What little babies we were!

@SarinArunima Remember?

Daniel Kahneman umřel. 😔 Párkrát jsem ho zažil v Londýně a byl vždycky skvělý. Ostatně jako celé jeho dílo. Ať je mu země lehká..

The indifference, the blatant disregard for another person’s life… horrifying, sickening, and absolutely vile.

@JenniRodd @EP_UCL @UCLPALS Thanks! I look forward to meeting everyone too!

@SarinArunima @EP_UCL @UCLPALS Welcome! Look forward to meeting you.

Delighted to share that starting Fall 2023, I’ll join the Department of Psychology at University College London as a Lecturer! I’m thrilled to work alongside scholars who have inspired my work & look forward to expanding my research in this incredible department! @UCLPALS @EP_UCL

@hugospiers @UCLPALS @EP_UCL Thanks! I’m excited to join too! :)

@ShirleyBWang Thank you for always being such a cheerleader!! So lucky to have you by my side! ❤️❤️

Congratulations to the amazing & brilliant @SarinArunima! Ever since we met on the first day of grad school I knew she'd do incredible things 🥹💕 UCL is beyond lucky to have hired this superstar!

@david_lagnado @UCLPALS @EP_UCL Me too!! :)

@SarinArunima @UCLPALS @EP_UCL Brilliant that you’re coming here- looking forward to working together 😻😻

I’m so grateful for all the help and support I’m received, and excited to pay it forward through my research and my new role! ✨

I’m so grateful for this opportunity and indebted to many people. A special shout-out to the absolute best mentor @fierycushman and others: @mark_ho_ @MoralityLab @david_lagnado, in addition to my friends & family for their endless support, guidance, & encouragement!