Skip to content

Kathryn Francis

Co-Director
Kathryn Francis

I am a Senior Researcher with the Neuroscience, Ethics & Society (NEUROSEC) team in the Department of Psychiatry and a Senior Researcher in the Uehiro Oxford Institute.

I am Co-Director of the Design Bioethics Laboratory, with the Neuroscience, Ethics & Society (NEUROSEC) team at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, and the Wellcome Discovery Platform 'ANTITHESES'.

My background is in experimental moral psychology and prior to my position at the University of Oxford, I directed the Moral Minds Lab at the University of Leeds as an Assistant Professor. I have a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the Marie-Curie funded CogNovo programme at Plymouth University, an MSc in Psychological Research, and a BSc in Psychology from Bangor University.

My research covers three central themes:

Moral disagreement and moral inconsistency

I research the way in which people navigate moral inconsistency and moral disagreement using innovative data collection tools, including Virtual Reality. The ultimate aim of this research is 1) to determine what factors contribute to moral inconsistencies and disagreements in these contexts, and 2) to investigate the use of innovative tools as valid and reliable methods to measure and support complex social and moral interactions.

Morality and human-animal/nature relations

The ultimate aim of this research is to understand how morally-relevant factors including moral beliefs (e.g., attitudes towards animals), moral emotions (e.g., disgust, elevation) and cognitive defence mechanisms (e.g., rationalisation), influence sustainable choices. With the number of vegans quadrupling since 2014 and increasing calls for climate action, this research has applications in health promotion, food product development, animal welfare, environmental conservation, food sustainability, and future policy.

Morality, bioethics, and medicine

This area of my research has largely focused on determining: 1) whether moral judgments change with experience working in "helping professions", 2) how professionals navigate conflicts between their personal and professional moral identities, and 3) whether there is an empathy crisis in medicine and healthcare. Extending from this, my research has started to consider moral perceptions of the incorporation of AI into medical decision-making.