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About

John Voiklis is a researcher whose work sits at the intersection of moral cognition, human-robot interaction, and social cognition. He is best known for pioneering investigations into how ordinary people apply moral norms to robotic agents — a question with profound implications as robots become increasingly embedded in everyday life. His most influential contribution, "Sacrifice One For the Good of Many?" (2015, 238 citations), offered the first systematic comparison of moral judgments directed at human versus robot agents, opening a rich vein of inquiry that continues to shape the field. Subsequent work uncovered a striking Human-Robot asymmetry in moral blame: people tend to blame robots more for inaction than action in moral dilemmas, while reversing this judgment for humans — a counterintuitive finding replicated across multiple studies and garnering over 200 additional citations. His broader theoretical interests, reflected in "The Social Life of Cognition," situate individual moral reasoning within larger social and communicative contexts. More recently, Voiklis has expanded his focus to include educational equity, exploring how computational thinking curricula can be made more inclusive for neurodiverse learners — demonstrating a consistent commitment to applying cognitive science in ways that benefit both technology design and human flourishing.