Most Recent Publication
Clancy, R., Zhu, Q., Streiner, S., Gammon, A., Thorpe, R., & Wu, X. (in press). The Relations between ethical reasoning, moral intuitions, and foreign language among engineering students in the US, Netherlands, and China. European Journal of Engineering Education.
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Ethical reasoning has been adopted as a goal of engineering ethics education, and measures of reasoning have been developed by researchers and with participants in mostly the US. However, US participants are outliers on various psychological and social characteristics, and it is unclear whether reasoning results in more ethical judgments or behaviors. To address these issues, this study sought to better understand the natures of and relations between ethical reasoning and moral intuitions among engineering students in the US, Netherlands, and China. It was found that: students in the US scored higher on postconventional reasoning than those in the Netherlands or China; ethics education was associated with lower rates of preconventional reasoning; postconventional reasoning was positively related to intuitions about care and fairness, and negatively relations to intuitions about loyalty, authority, and sanctity; and students in China cared more about loyalty, authority, and sanctity, and less about care and fairness.
Who We Are
The Laboratory for Normative & Cultural Studies of Emerging Technologies (LANCSET) at Virginia Tech is an open and inclusive community of scholars committed to critically engaging with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing through ethical, cultural, and societal lenses. Our work is grounded in the belief that technologies are not neutral; they are shaped by and, in turn, shape the values, norms, and cultures of the societies in which they are developed and deployed.

​Normative Focus
We examine the ethical shaping and governance of technological development and deployment, investigating how responsibility, human flourishing, ethics literacy, and research security are enacted throughout the lifecycle of emerging technologies.

Cultural Focus
​Our cultural lens explores the values already embedded in technological and professional education systems and the ways their adoption reshapes practices, identities, and meanings. ​
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