Dr Jo Cutler BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Jo Cutler

School of Psychology
Research Fellow

Contact details

Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Jo Cutler is a Wellcome Trust Early Career Research Fellow in the Centre for Human Brain Health. Her research uses computational modelling, neuroimaging, and big data to understand how we make choices that involve other people.

Qualifications

  • PhD Psychology
  • MSc Cognitive Neuroscience
  • BSc Psychology (International)

Biography

Dr Jo Cutler is currently a Research Fellow funded by a Wellcome Trust Early Career Award. Before this, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Social Decision Neuroscience Lab with Professor Patricia Lockwood at the University of Oxford then the University of Birmingham. 

Jo obtained her Psychology PhD in the Social Decision Lab at the University of Sussex with Dr Daniel Campbell-Meiklejohn. She also holds an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Sussex and studied undergraduate Psychology at the University of Leeds and the University of Sydney.

Research

Jo’s research aims to answer questions such as: why are people altruistic? Which situations make people more prosocial? How do these decisions change across the lifespan? To answer these questions, Jo uses tools from psychology and neuroscience including fMRI, physiological measures, behavioural experiments, neuropsychological studies and computational modelling.

Other activities

Consultancy for and collaboration with fundraising organisations.

Talks at fundraising conferences and charities.

Advisor for the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development Kindness Matters campaign.

Publications

Highlight publications

Lockwood, PL, Cutler, J, Drew, D, Abdurahman, A, Jeyaretna, DS, Apps, MAJ, Husain, M & Manohar, SG 2024, 'Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex is necessary for prosocial motivation', Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 1403-1416. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01899-4

Cutler, J, Nitschke, JP, Lamm, C & Lockwood, PL 2021, 'Older adults across the globe exhibit increased prosocial behavior but also greater in-group preferences', Nature Aging, vol. 1, pp. 880–888. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00118-3

Cutler, J, Wittmann, MK, Abdurahman, A, Hargitai, LD, Drew, D, Husain, M & Lockwood, PL 2021, 'Ageing is associated with disrupted reinforcement learning whilst learning to help others is preserved', Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 4440. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24576-w

Recent publications

Article

Talbot, J, Cutler, J, Tamm, M, Little, SJ, Harmer, CJ, Husain, M, Lockwood, PL & Apps, MAJ 2025, 'Dopamine boosts motivation for prosocial effort in Parkinson's disease', The Journal of Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1593-24.2024

Su, Z, Garvert, MM, Zhang, L, Vogel, TA, Cutler, J, Husain, M, Manohar, SG & Lockwood, PL 2025, 'Dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions differentially impact social influence and temporal discounting', PLoS Biology, vol. 23, no. 4, e3003079. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003079

Vanags, P, Cutler, J, Kosse, F & Lockwood, PL 2025, 'Greater income and financial well-being are associated with higher prosocial preferences and behaviors across 76 countries', PNAS nexus, vol. 4, no. 2, pgae582. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae582

Gueguen, M, Cutler, J, Drew, D, Apps, MAJ, Jeyaretna, DS, Husain, M, Manohar, SG & Lockwood, PL 2025, 'Ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions disrupt learning to reward others', Brain. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awaf056

Gaule, A, Martin, P, Lockwood, PL, Cutler, J, Apps, M, Roberts, R, Phillips, H, Brown, K, McCrory, EJ & Viding, E 2024, 'Reduced prosocial motivation and effort in adolescents with conduct problems and callous‐unemotional traits', Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13945

The International Climate Psychology Collaboration, Contreras-Huerta, LS & Elsherif, M 2024, 'The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries', Scientific Data, vol. 11, 1066. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03865-1

Jansen, M, Lockwood, PL, Cutler, J & Bruijn, ERAD 2023, 'l-DOPA and oxytocin influence the neurocomputational mechanisms of self-benefitting and prosocial reinforcement learning', NeuroImage, vol. 270, 119983. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/h7yrz, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119983

International Collaboration on the Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 2023, 'Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries', Scientific Data, vol. 10, no. 1, 272. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02080-8

Lockwood, P, Wittmann, MK, Nili, H, Matsumoto-Ryan, M, Abdurahman, A, Cutler, J, Husain, M & Apps, M 2022, 'Distinct neural representations for prosocial and self-benefiting effort', Current Biology, vol. 32, no. 19, pp. 4172-4185.e7. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.27.461936, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.010

Van Bavel, JJ, Cichocka, A, Capraro, V, Sjastad, H, Nezlek, JB, Pavlovic, T, Alfano, M, Gelfand, MJ, Azevedo, F, Birtel, MD, Cislak, A, Lockwood, PL, Ross, RM, Abts, K, Agadullina, E, Aruta, JJB, Besharati, SN, Bor, A, Choma, BL, Crabtree, CD, Cunningham, WA, De, K, Ejaz, W, Elbaek, CT, Findor, A, Flichtentrei, D, Franc, R, Gjoneska, B, Gruber, J, Gualda, E, Horiuchi, Y, Huynh, TLD, Ibanez, A, Imran, MA, Israelashvili, J, Jasko, K, Kantorowicz, J, Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, E, Krouwel, A, Laakasuo, M, Lamm, C, Leygue, C, Lin, M-J, Mansoor, MS, Marie, A, Mayiwar, L, Mazepus, H, McHugh, C, Minda, JP, Mitkidis, P, Olsson, A, Otterbring, T, Packer, DJ, Perry, A, Petersen, MB, Puthillam, A, Riano-Moreno, JC, Rothmund, T, Santamaria-Garcia, H, Schmid, PC, Stoyanov, D, Tewari, S, Todosijevic, B, Tsakiris, M, Tung, HH, Umbres, RG, Vanags, E, Vlasceanu, M, Vonasch, A, Yucel, M, Zhang, Y, Abad, M, Adler, E, Akrawi, N, Mdarhri, HA, Amara, H, Amodio, DM, Antazo, BG, Apps, M, Ay, FC, Ba, MH, Barbosa, S, Bastian, B, Berg, A, Bernal-Zarate, MP, Bernstein, M, Bialek, M, Bilancini, E, Bogatyreva, N, Boncinelli, L, Booth, JE, Borau, S, Buchel, O, Cameron, CD, Carvalho, CF, Celadin, T, Cerami, C, Chalise, HN, Cheng, X, Cian, L, Cockcroft, K, Conway, J, Andres Cordoba-Delgado, M, Crespi, C, Crouzevialle, M, Cutler, J, Dabrowska, J, Cypryanska, M, Daniels, MA, Davis, VH, Dayley, PN, Delouvee, S, Denkovski, O, Dezecache, G, Dhaliwal, NA, Diato, AB, Di Paolo, R, Drosinou, M, Dulleck, U, Ekmanis, J, Ertan, AS, Etienne, TW, Farhana, HH, Farkhari, F, Farmer, H, Fenwick, A, Fidanovski, K, Flew, T, Fraser, S, Frempong, RB, Fugelsang, JA, Gale, J, Begona Garcia-Navarro, E, Garladinne, P, Ghajjou, O, Gkinopoulos, T, Gray, K, Griffin, SM, Gronfeldt, B, Gumren, M, Gurung, RL, Halperin, E, Herzon, V, Hruska, M, Huang, G, Hudecek, MFC, Isler, O, Jangard, S, Jorgensen, FJ, Kachanoff, F, Kahn, J, Dangol, AK, Keudel, O, Koppel, L, Koverola, M, Kubin, E, Kunnari, A, Kutiyski, Y, Laguna, O, Leota, J, Lermer, E, Levy, J, Levy, N, Li, C, Long, EU, Longoni, C, Maglic, M, McCashin, D, Metcalf, AL, Miklousic, I, El Mimouni, S, Miura, A, Molina-Paredes, J, Monroy-Fonseca, C, Morales-Marente, E, Moreau, D, Muda, R, Myer, A, Nash, K, Nesh-Nash, T, Nitschke, JP, Nurse, MS, Ohtsubo, Y, de Mello, VO, O'Madagain, C, Onderco, M, Soledad Palacios-Galvez, M, Palomaki, J, Pan, Y, Papp, Z, Parnamets, P, Paruzel-Czachura, M, Pavlovic, Z, Payan-Gomez, C, Perander, S, Pitman, MM, Prasad, R, Pyrkosz-Pacyna, J, Rathje, S, Raza, A, Rego, GG, Rhee, K, Robertson, CE, Rodriguez-Pascual, I, Saikkonen, T, Salvador-Ginez, O, Sampaio, WM, Santi, GC, Santiago-Tovar, N, Savage, D, Scheffer, JA, Schonegger, P, Schultner, DT, Schutte, EM, Scott, A, Sharma, M, Sharma, P, Skali, A, Stadelmann, D, Stanojevic, D, Stefaniak, A, Sternisko, A, Stoica, A, Stoyanova, KK, Strickland, B, Sundvall, J, Thomas, JP, Tinghog, G, Torgler, B, Traast, IJ, Tucciarelli, R, Tyrala, M, Ungson, ND, Uysal, MS, Van Lange, PAM, van Prooijen, J-W, Vastfjall, D, Verkoeijen, P, Vieira, JB, von Sikorski, C, Walker, AC, Watermeyer, J, Wetter, E, Whillans, A, Willardt, R, Wohl, MJA, Wojcik, AD, Wu, K, Yamada, Y, Yilmaz, O, Yogeeswaran, K, Ziemer, C-T, Zwaan, RA & Boggio, PS 2022, 'National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic', Nature Communications, vol. 13, 517. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ydt95, https://doi.org/10.1038/S41467-021-27668-9

Martins, D, Lockwood, P, Cutler, J, Moran, R & Paloyelis, Y 2022, 'Oxytocin modulates neurocomputational mechanisms underlying prosocial reinforcement learning', Progress in neurobiology, vol. 213, 102253. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.26.445739, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2022.102253

Pavlović, T, Azevedo, F, De, K, Riaño-Moreno, JC, Maglić, M, Gkinopoulos, T, Donnelly-Kehoe, PA, Payán-Gómez, C, Huang, G, Kantorowicz, J, Birtel, MD, Schönegger, P, Capraro, V, Santamaría-García, H, Yucel, M, Ibanez, A, Rathje, S, Wetter, E, Stanojević, D, van Prooijen, J-W, Hesse, E, Elbaek, CT, Franc, R, Pavlović, Z, Mitkidis, P, Cichocka, A, Gelfand, M, Alfano, M, Ross, RM, Sjåstad, H, Nezlek, JB, Cislak, A, Lockwood, P, Abts, K, Agadullina, E, Amodio, DM, Apps, MAJ, Aruta, JJB, Besharati, S, Bor, A, Choma, B, Cunningham, W, Ejaz, W, Farmer, H, Findor, A, Gjoneska, B, Gualda, E, Huynh, TLD, Imran, MA, Israelashvili, J, Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, E, Krouwel, A, Kutiyski, Y, Laakasuo, M, Lamm, C, Levy, J, Leygue, C, Lin, M-J, Mansoor, MS, Marie, A, Mayiwar, L, Mazepus, H, McHugh, C, Olsson, A, Otterbring, T, Packer, D, Palomäki, J, Perry, A, Petersen, MB, Puthillam, A, Rothmund, T, Schmid, PC, Stadelmann, D, Stoica, A, Stoyanov, D, Stoyanova, K, Tewari, S, Todosijević, B, Torgler, B, Tsakiris, M, Tung, HH, Umbreș, RG, Vanags, E, Vlasceanu, M, Vonasch, AJ, Zhang, Y, Abad, M, Adler, E, Mdarhri, HA, Antazo, B, Ay, FC, Ba, MEH, Barbosa, S, Bastian, B, Berg, A, Białek, M, Bilancini, E, Bogatyreva, N, Boncinelli, L, Booth, JE, Borau, S, Buchel, O, de Carvalho, CF, Celadin, T, Cerami, C, Chalise, HN, Cheng, X, Cian, L, Cockcroft, K, Conway, J, Córdoba-Delgado, MA, Crespi, C, Crouzevialle, M, Cutler, J, Cypryańska, M, Dabrowska, J, Davis, VH, Minda, JP, Dayley, PN, Delouvée, S, Denkovski, O, Dezecache, G, Dhaliwal, NA, Diato, A, Di Paolo, R, Dulleck, U, Ekmanis, J, Etienne, TW, Farhana, HH, Farkhari, F, Fidanovski, K, Flew, T, Fraser, S, Frempong, RB, Fugelsang, J, Gale, J, García-Navarro, EB, Garladinne, P, Gray, K, Griffin, SM, Gronfeldt, B, Gruber, J, Halperin, E, Herzon, V, Hruška, M, Hudecek, MFC, Isler, O, Jangard, S, Jørgensen, F, Keudel, O, Koppel, L, Koverola, M, Kunnari, A, Leota, J, Lermer, E, Li, C, Longoni, C, McCashin, D, Mikloušić, I, Molina-Paredes, J, Monroy-Fonseca, C, Morales-Marente, E, Moreau, D, Muda, R, Myer, A, Nash, K, Nitschke, JP, Nurse, MS, de Mello, VO, Palacios-Galvez, MS, Pan, Y, Papp, Z, Pärnamets, P, Paruzel-Czachura, M, Perander, S, Pitman, M, Raza, A, Rêgo, GG, Robertson, C, Rodríguez-Pascual, I, Saikkonen, T, Salvador-Ginez, O, Sampaio, WM, Santi, GC, Schultner, D, Schutte, E, Scott, A, Skali, A, Stefaniak, A, Sternisko, A, Strickland, B, Thomas, JP, Tinghög, G, Traast, IJ, Tucciarelli, R, Tyrala, M, Ungson, ND, Uysal, MS, Van Rooy, D, Västfjäll, D, Vieira, JB, von Sikorski, C, Walker, AC, Watermeyer, J, Willardt, R, Wohl, MJA, Wójcik, AD, Wu, K, Yamada, Y, Yilmaz, O, Yogeeswaran, K, Ziemer, C-T, Zwaan, RA, Boggio, PS, Whillans, A, Van Lange, PAM, Prasad, R, Onderco, M, O'Madagain, C, Nesh-Nash, T, Laguna, OM, Kubin, E, Gümren, M, Fenwick, A, Ertan, AS, Bernstein, MJ, Amara, H & Van Bavel, JJ 2022, 'Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning', PNAS nexus, vol. 1, no. 3, pgac093. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac093

Preprint

Yanga, X, Schulza, J, Schmidt, K, Kenny, AR, Pfuhl, G, Gjoneska, B, Dalgar, I, Lewis, SC, Exner, A, Buchanan, EM, Lander, K, Becker, M, Du, H, Johri, A, Selcuk, E, Gallyamova, A, Calluso, C, Reggev, N, Vranka, MA, Acar, OA, Palma, TA, Kocur, M, Oliveros, JC, Montefinese, M, Wilton, LS, Zdybek, PM, Ferreira, PRS, Pfattheicher, S, Akkas, H, Autin, F, Sorokowska, A, Janssen, SMJ, March, DS, Young, DM, Valentova, JV, Taşbaş, EHO, Bükün, MF, Giammusso, I, Brandt, MJ, Couto, C, Simon, DA, Cutler, J, Prokosch, ML, Sjåstad, H, Manunta, E, Whyte, S, Marsh, AA, Papadatou-Pastou, M, Jaeger, B, Morvinski, C, Primbs, MA, Akil, AM, Kapoor, H, Barzykowski, K, Ghai, S, Moreau, D, Seehuus, M, Kowal, M, Evans, TR, Hill, KM, Calvillo, DP, Wiechert, S, Afhami, R, Hoyer, K, Korbmacher, M, Elbaek, CT, Alsuhaibani, Z, Pronizius, E, Cui, Q, Wang, Z, Cundiff, JM, Panahi, AT, Bjornsdottir, RT, Baskin, E, Ergiyen, T, Metin-Orta, I, Collins, WM, Bø, S, Marinucci, M, Baker, BJ, Özdoğru, AA, Anne, M, Standage, M, Tullett, AM, Milfont, TL, Flynn, FJ, Zidkova, R, Ruiz-Fernandez, S, Sachs, T, Bilancini, E, Verheyen, S, Massoni, S, Jiahui, W, Camargo, A, Wang, YA, Zhou, S, Peetz, HK, Grigoryev, D, Ghasemi, O, Cong, CW, Westgate, EC, Sutherland, CAM, Boucher, L, Grigoryan, L, Paltoglou, AE, Al-Hoorie, AH, Sacco, DF, Thomas, AG, Haeffel, GJ, Davis, WE, Mandalaywala, TM, Cruz, F, Ross, RM, Jiang, X, Studzinska, A, Dumbravă, A, University, IC, Misiak, M, Tran, US, Felisberti, FM, Nagy, T, Gunaydin, G, Buchanan, EM, Miranda, JF, Behnke, M, Akin, K, Berkessel, JB, Johnson, DC, Wu, Y, Godbersen, H, Edlund, JE, Gourdon-Kanhukamwe, A, Martin, D, Norman, JB, Batres, C, Kütük, B, Szumowska, E, Storage, D, Bouguettaya, A, Lins, S, Voracek, M, Trémolière, B, Cyrus-Lai, W, Alzahawi, S, Tavel, P, Anderson, LD, Röer, JP, Malinakova, K, Varella, MAC, Karababa, A, Walczak, RB, Ribeiro, G, Sarı, E, Pypno-Blajda, K, Paruzel-Czachura, M, Travaglino, GA, Neta, M, Vaidis, DC, Lu, JG, Tatachari, S, Camgöz, SM, Lockwood, PL, Panagiotis, M, Lin, W, Rathje, S, van Lent, T, Greijdanus, H, Faure, R, Lamm, C, Brick, C, Zhao, X, Aquino, SD, Ulloa, JL, Walker, B, Malecki, WP, Lou, NM, Pizziol, V, Kuzminska, AO, Michael, S, Adıgüzel, A, Karadeniz, G, Yücel, E, Isloi, C, Chwiłkowska, P, Yu, Z, Fay, N, Papaioannou, K, Peker, M, Huang, G, El-Haddad, RW, Verschuere, B, Meier, Z, Vaughn, LA, Albayrak-Aydemir, N, Stieger, S, Çoksan, S, Bijlstra, G, Alves, SG, Hartanto, A, Mallik, PR, Jami, WA, Chen, R, Fellnhofer, K, Marcu, GM, Batalha, L, Kocalar, HE, Vieira, L, Gleibs, IH, Sharifian, MH, Hadjisolomou, SP, Riva, P, Sirota, M, Novak, L, Sorokowski, P, Li, Y, Elsherif, M, Carvalho, CL, de Lima, TJS, Baker, A, Ishii, T, Mifune, N, Miura, A, Ohtsubo, Y, Takahashi, R, Szala, A, Wolfe, K, Özdemir, F, Komyaginskaya, E, Wu, Q, Boncinelli, L, Lin, J, Gupta, R, Vazirian, MH, Hajighasemi, M, Sepehri, A, Peters, K, Emery, C, Collis, H, Henningsen, L, Aglioti, SM, Mirisola, A, Manriquez-Robles, D, Baeza-Rivera, MJ, Salazar-Fernández, C, Paydarfard, S, Dorfman, A, Katzir, M, Ram, H, Butt, MM, Jia, L, Chua, KQ, Ismail, I, WIllinger, D, Siebenhandl, A, Kaminski, G, Bennett, T, Kohl, A, Stevens, L, Flowe, HD, Colloff, MF, Scott, K, Wagner, K, Ingham, MP, Krishnappa, SM, Fabbri, M, Limata, P, Smalarz, L, Eerdmans, RE, Garza, PB, Gaviria, A, Espín, AM, Kovářík, J, Benito-Ostolaza, JM, Galang, RMN, Denzon, EES, Taborda-Osorio, H, Otálora, Y, Aminnuddin, NA, Kaça, G, Boğa, M, Solescu, DM, Balım, S, Bürhan, P, Bilger, D, Liu, L, Kruse, E, Solak, Ç, Akpınar, B, Coşkun, B, Gül, D, Muftareviç, S, Deschrijver, E, Zigdon, I, Krosch, AR, Ilchovska, ZG, Dokovova, M, Daryani, Y, Tome, NL, Görzig, A, Rhoads, SA, Kountouriotis, G, Özçakan, S, Gökdağ, C, Freira, L, Spasovski, O & Dunham, Y 2024 'Large-scale cross-societal examination of real- and minimal-group biases' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5gpr4

Vanags, P, Cutler, J, Kosse, F & Lockwood, P 2023 'Greater wealth is associated with higher prosocial preferences and behaviours across 76 countries' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zc5a3

Rhoads, SA, Gan, L, Berluti, K, O'Connell, K, Cutler, J, Lockwood, P & Marsh, A 2023 'Neurocomputational basis of learning when choices simultaneously affect both oneself and others' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rf4x9

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