David A. Pizarro

Papers

Total Citations

182

H-Index

About

David A. Pizarro is a leading voice in moral psychology, exploring how emotions, intuitions, and even bodily states shape our ethical judgments and social decisions. His work bridges psychology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary theory, with a particular focus on disgust, trust, and political ideology. In his highly cited work on trustworthiness detection (182 citations), Pizarro demonstrated that humans can, with surprising accuracy, infer a stranger’s cooperative intentions from nonverbal cues alone—a finding with profound implications for understanding economic exchange and social bonding. This research, alongside studies on how disgust influences moral condemnation and how political orientation colors perceptions of harm, has made him a central figure in the field. His papers have garnered thousands of citations, reflecting their impact across psychology, law, and philosophy. Beyond academia, Pizarro is known for co-hosting the popular psychology podcast *Very Bad Wizards*, where he brings rigorous research to a broad audience with wit and candor, cementing his reputation as both a serious scholar and an engaging public intellectual.