Abigail Marsh

Dr. Abigail Marsh is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Georgetown University, where she directs the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience. Marsh also serves as co-director of the Interdisciplinary PhD Concentration in Cognitive Science. She earned her doctorate in social psychology from Harvard University and completed postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health, focusing on the neurodevelopment of psychopathy. Her research in social neuroscience and cognitive science has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation. Marsh's scholarly work appears in more than 80 publications in journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behaviour, and JAMA Psychiatry.

Marsh's research explores the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying human social behavior, with a particular focus on altruism and psychopathy. Her laboratory conducts behavioral and brain imaging studies examining the spectrum of social behavior, from altruism to conduct problems in children, adolescents, and adults. Findings from Marsh's work have identified neurological differences between altruists and individuals with psychopathic traits, especially in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotion and fear processing. Altruists tend to have larger amygdalae and heightened sensitivity to others' fear, while individuals with psychopathic traits show the opposite pattern. This research has contributed to the understanding that altruism and psychopathy exist on a continuum within human behavior.

Marsh is the author of the book "The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between," published in the United Kingdom as "Good for Nothing." The book presents her laboratory findings in a narrative accessible to general audiences and received the Book Prize for the Promotion of Social and Personality Science from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Marsh's research has also been recognized with the Cozzarelli Prize for scientific excellence and originality from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the S&R Kuno Award for Applied Science for the Social Good, and the Richard J. Wyatt Fellowship Award for translational research from the National Institute of Mental Health. She has received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award at Georgetown University and has been recognized for her teaching.

Marsh communicates her research to public audiences through platforms such as her TED Talk, "Why Some People Are More Altruistic Than Others." She has written for The Washington Post, NPR, Psychology Today, The Guardian, Slate, and The Wall Street Journal, and her work has been featured by PBS, The Economist, and National Geographic. Marsh serves as president of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society and sits on the advisory boards of the National Kidney Donation Organization and 1Day Sooner. Her work in empathy, altruism, and neuroscience challenges assumptions about human nature and highlights the scientific basis for empathy, courage, and generosity.