Highlight publications
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
Lockwood, PL, Apps, MAJ, Valton, V, Viding, E & Roiser, JP 2016, 'Neurocomputational mechanisms of prosocial learning and links to empathy', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113, no. 35, pp. 9763–9768. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1603198113
Lockwood, PL, Hamonet, M, Zhang, SH, Ratnavel, A, Salmony, FU, Husain, M & Apps, MAJ 2017, 'Prosocial apathy for helping others when effort is required', Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 1, no. 7, 0131. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0131
Lockwood, PL, Klein-Flügge, MC, Abdurahman, A & Crockett, MJ 2020, 'Model-free decision making is prioritized when learning to avoid harming others', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117, no. 44, pp. 27719-27730. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010890117
Recent publications
Article
Elster, EM, Pauli, R, Fairchild, G, McDonald, M, Baumann, S, Sidlauskaite, J, De Brito, S, Freitag, CM, Konrad, K, Roessner, V, Brazil, IA, Lockwood, PL & Kohls, G 2025, 'Altered Neural Responses to Punishment Learning in Conduct Disorder', Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2025.01.003
Rush, P, Keating, C, Lugtmeijer, S, Allmark, E, Davis, A, Beejadhur, A, Tarling, A, Todd, K, Hannon, S, Iddles, A, Vichare, C, Gachomba, MJM, Lockwood, P, Apps, M & Sowden-Carvalho, S 2025, 'Autistic and non-autistic prosocial decision-making: The impact of recipient neurotype', Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, vol. 128, 202710 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reia.2025.202710
Pauli, R, Brazil, I, Kohls, G, Hauser, TU, Gistelinck, L, Dikeos, D, Dochnal, R, Fairchild, G, Fernández-Rivas, A, Herpertz-Dahlmann, B, Hervas, A, Konrad, K, Popma, A, Stadler, C, Freitag, CM, De Brito, SA & Lockwood, PL 2025, 'Conduct disorder is associated with heightened action initiation and reduced learning from punishment but not reward', Biological Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.03.005
Holton, E, van Opheusden, B, Grohn, J, Ward, H, Grogan, J, Lockwood, PL, Ma, I, Ma, WJ & Manohar, SG 2025, 'Disentangling the component processes in complex planning impairments following ventromedial prefrontal lesions', The Journal of Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1814-24.2025
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
Vogel, TA, Priestley, L, Cutler, J, Hogg, T, Khalighinejad, N, Garrett, N, Apps, MAJ, Rushworth, MFS & Lockwood, PL 2025, 'Humans are more prosocial in poor foraging environments', Nature Communications.
Contreras-Huerta, LS, Yu, H, Prosser, AMB, Lockwood, PL, Crockett, MJ & Apps, MAJ 2025, 'Hypocritical blame is associated with reduced prosocial motivation', Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 32811. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17698-4
Rhoads, SA, Gan, L, Berluti, K, O'Connell, K, Cutler, J, Lockwood, P & Marsh, AA 2025, 'Neurocomputational basis of learning when choices simultaneously affect both oneself and others', Nature Communications, vol. 16, 9350. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64424-9
Cutler, J, Contreras-Huerta, LS, Todorova, B, Nitschke, JP, Michalaki, K, Koppel, L, Gkinopoulos, T, Vogel, T, Lamm, C, Vastfjall, D, Tsakiris, M, Apps, M & Lockwood, P 2025, 'Psychological interventions that decrease psychological distance or challenge system justification increase motivation to exert effort to mitigate climate change', Communications Psychology, vol. 3, 148. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00332-4
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, vol. 148, no. 10, awaf056, pp. 3537-3550. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awaf056
Contreras-Huerta, LS, Pisauro, MA, Küchenhoff, S, Gekiere, A, Le Heron, C, Lockwood, PL & Apps, MAJ 2024, 'A reward self-bias leads to more optimal foraging for ourselves than others', Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, 26845. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69452-x
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
Review article
Lockwood, PL, van den Bos, W & Dreher, J-C 2025, 'Moral Learning and Decision-Making Across the Lifespan', Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 475-500. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-021324-060611
View all publications in research portal