Tage Rai

Tage S. Rai is a psychologist who studies ethics, culture, and violence. Drawing on both qualitative and experimental methods, he examines the social-relational nature of morality, its origins, and its consequences. In recent work, he has found that when perpetrators are motivated by moral sentiments, they may humanize rather than dehumanize their victims, experience greater rather than lesser self-control when harming them, and respond irrationally to material costs and benefits. Moving forward, he is especially interested in developing psychological approaches to the study of organizational and institutional violence.

Professor Rai received his PhD in cognitive psychology at UCLA. While at UCLA, he studied the cultural anthropology of interpersonal violence, as described in his book Virtuous Violence. He has published articles in leading journals in psychology, anthropology, and management. Prior to joining UCSD, where he an assistant professor of management, Rai was the Editor for social and behavioral sciences at Science Magazine and a Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He completed his post-doctoral training at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.