Kurt Gray

Kurt Gray is a professor of social psychology at UNC Chapel Hill who received his PhD from Harvard University. He is the author of "The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels and Why it Matters" together with his late mentor Dan Wegner.He studies mind perception and morality, pondering such questions as "what is the nature of good and evil," "can we ever truly know ourselves," "why are humanoid robots so creepy," and "what makes grandma's cooking taste so good?" (The answers, by the way, are "salvation and suffering," "probably not," "dead eyes," and "love.")He was almost a geophysicist instead of a social psychologist, but a cold night stranded and stalked by lynx in Northern Alberta convinced him otherwise. He firmly believes that one shouldn't take themselves too seriously, even when exploring serious issues of the human condition. He is the winner of multiple awards including the APS Janet Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Research and the SPSP Theoretical Innovation Award. He lives in Carrboro with his wife and two cats Chas and Cleo, to whom he attributes far too much mind.His website is www.kurtjgray.com