Dr. Gorlin pursues interdisciplinary research on the moral, epistemic, and psychological foundations of adaptive self-change. She is particularly interested in what motivates people to think actively and honestly about their reasons for changing - even when doing so "runs against the grain" of their current habits, or is otherwise excruciatingly painful or hard. Ultimately she is interested in designing interventions that more effectively inspire and empower people to change themselves for the better. She has a 3-year junior investigator grant through the Genetics and Human Agency initiative (funded by the Templeton Foundation) to investigate the psychological loci of human agency in light of genetic and environmental influences on complex human behavior.
