Abigail Marsh

Marsh was born in 1976{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/author-abigail-marsh-on-the-black-eyed-peas-1514995331|title=Author Abigail Marsh on the Black Eyed Peas|date=January 3, 2018|website=wsj.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/articles/what-makes-nice-people-nice|title=What Makes Nice People Nice?|first=Teresa Wiltz '83 | Nov-|last=Dec 2017|website=Dartmouth Alumni Magazine}} and is from Tacoma, Washington.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/01/fear-factor-abigail-marsh-psychopath-altruism/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401231422/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/01/fear-factor-abigail-marsh-psychopath-altruism/|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 1, 2020|title=How Fear Makes You Do Good or Evil|date=January 3, 2018|website=National Geographic News}}

She graduated from Dartmouth College in 1999 with a bachelor of arts in psychology.{{Cite web|url=https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RYGZAA4/abigail-marsh|title=Georgetown University Faculty Directory|website=gufaculty360.georgetown.edu}} She received her PhD in social psychology from Harvard University in 2004, where she previously earned an MA in the same discipline in 2001.{{Cite web|url=https://sandrfoundation.org/programs/awards/winners/list/10/2017#348|title=The S&R Kuno Award Winners | S&R Foundation|website=sandrfoundation.org|access-date=April 17, 2020|archive-date=August 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805132137/https://sandrfoundation.org/programs/awards/winners/list/10/2017#348|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.prospectivepsych.org/content/researchers|title=Researchers | Prospective Psychology|website=prospectivepsych.org}}

After graduating from Harvard, Marsh worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health until 2008.{{Cite web|url=https://events.bc.edu/event/the_altruistic_brain_making_the_choice_to_help#.XpoztGLQiUl|title=The Altruistic Brain: Making the Choice to Help|website=Boston College Events}}{{Cite web|url=https://rootsofempathy.org/abigail-marsh/|title=Abigail Marsh – Roots of Empathy}}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} She then began to work at Georgetown University, and in October 2013, she became tenured.{{Cite web|url=https://thehoya.com/11-faculty-receive-tenure/|title=11 Faculty Receive Tenure|date=October 18, 2013}}

Marsh is the director of the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience at Georgetown, which conducts research on empathy, altruism, and other related topics through various methods, such as brain imaging and pharmacology. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1729406|title=NSF Award Search: Award#1729406 – Neural and cognitive bases of costly altruism toward strangers|website=nsf.gov}} She is on the advisory board of Donor to Donor, an organization that promotes living kidney donation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.donortodonor.com/abigail-marsh|title=Abigail Marsh|website=Donor to Donor|access-date=April 16, 2020|archive-date=August 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829150006/https://www.donortodonor.com/abigail-marsh|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisstrub/2019/10/08/donortodonor/|title=Donor-to-Donor Kidney Chains Personify American Selflessness, Save Lives|first=Chris|last=Strub|website=Forbes}}

Marsh has written articles for Slate,{{Cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/10/mark_larribus_should_criminals_with_psychopathy_maoa_variants_or_tumors.html|title=Less Guilty by Reason of Neurological Defect|first=Abigail|last=Marsh|date=March 14, 2019|via=Slate}} Psychology Today,{{Cite web|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/goodness-sake/201812/does-taking-pleasure-in-giving-others-make-us-selfish|title=Does Taking Pleasure in Giving to Others Make Us Selfish?|website=Psychology Today}} Business Insider,{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/psychopath-traits-in-kids-fear-2018-7|title=I studied children with psychopathic traits, and they all have trouble recognizing an emotion that we all feel|first=Abigail|last=Marsh|website=Business Insider}} The Guardian,{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/22/what-makes-a-child-a-psychopath|title=Brain unpicked: what makes a child psychopathic? | Abigail Marsh|first=Abigail|last=Marsh|newspaper=The Guardian |date=October 22, 2017|via=theguardian.com}} NPR,{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2018/02/05/581873428/could-a-more-individualistic-world-also-be-a-more-altruistic-one|title=Could a More Individualistic World Also Be a More Altruistic One?|website=NPR.org}} The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education,{{Cite web|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Choosing-Fear/241305|title=Choosing Fear|first=Abigail|last=Marsh|date=October 1, 2017|via=The Chronicle of Higher Education}} and other publications. In September 2016, she presented her story and work in a TED talk in Banff, Canada.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ted.com/speakers/abigail_marsh|title=Abigail Marsh | Speaker | TED|first=Abigail|last=Marsh|website=ted.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ted.com/talks/abigail_marsh_why_some_people_are_more_altruistic_than_others|title=Why some people are more altruistic than others|first=Abigail|last=Marsh|date=September 16, 2016 |via=ted.com}}

Much of Marsh's work pertains to the study of altruism and why people may help others at their own cost.{{Cite web|url=https://www.science.org/content/webinar/impulses-intent-and-science-evil|title=Impulses, intent, and the science of evil|date=July 31, 2019|website=Science | AAAS}} More generally, she researches in the field of social and affective neuroscience and psychology. On the topic of altruism, Marsh's research has yielded more information about the amygdala, showing that in altruists, the amygdalae tend to be larger, and in psychopaths it tends to be smaller. The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions and fear. In 2014, Marsh published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that concluded a spectrum existed with extreme altruists on one end and psychopaths at the other.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2014/09/19/right-on|title=Right on!|newspaper=The Economist }} She has also published multiple studies that show that, when altruists watch someone else feel pain, they have levels of activity in similar regions of their brain as when they feel pain themselves, concluding that altruists are better at recognizing the fear of others.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5973jq/joel-salinas-feels-patients-pain-mirror-touch-synesthesia|title=This Doctor's Rare Condition Might Help Us Understand the Roots of Empathy|first=Lia Kantrowitz, Shayla Love, Tony|last=Luong|date=May 7, 2019}} Marsh leads work at Georgetown with altruistic donors, particularly those who have donated kidneys to strangers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180911132058.htm|title=For the first time, a neural link between altruism and empathy toward strangers|website=ScienceDaily}}

Her work with children and adolescents has been used to show how different neural workings can lead to behavioral problems.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/inside-minds-child-psychopaths-surprising-11378449|title=Inside minds of child psychopaths – and surprising trait they inherit from mums|first=Claire|last=Carter|date=October 24, 2017|website=mirror}}

In 2019, Marsh conducted research on altruism in kidney donors and stem cell donors using behavioral investigations and brain imaging, as well as using those methods to study the causes of conduct problems in children and adolescents.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cct.lsu.edu/lectures/abigail-marsh|title=Abigail Marsh|website=Center for Computation & Technology}} In the same year, she led a study that found, among other conclusions, that Americans are surprisingly successful at distinguishing other Americans from Australians by visual cues, like walking, waving one's hand, or smiling.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-social-secret-that-humans-share-with-ants-11557520894|title=The Social Secret That Humans Share With Ants|first=Mark W.|last=Moffett|date=May 10, 2019|via=wsj.com}}

In 2017, Marsh published the book Good for Nothing, on the topic of altruists and psychopaths.

Marsh's second book, The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between, which also came out in 2017, covers her research on aggression, altruism, and empathy in the context of neuroscience.{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/participants/abigail-marsh/|title=Abigail Marsh}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/science/reading-neutral-faces.html|title=Why It Seems as if Everyone Is Always Angry with You|first=Heather|last=Murphy|work=The New York Times |date=April 24, 2018|via=NYTimes.com}}

Marsh is a recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health's 2007 Richard J Wyatt Memorial Award for translational research. In 2014, she received the Cozzarelli Prize for work on altruism she had published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research she coauthored studied "extraordinary altruists", focusing on people who donated kidneys to strangers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/marsh-receives-cozzarelli-prize-for-outstanding-research-on-altruism.html|title=Marsh Receives Cozzarelli Prize for Outstanding Research on Altruism|website=Association for Psychological Science - APS}} In 2016, Marsh was named a fellow in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. In 2017, the S&R Foundation awarded her their Kuno Award for Applied Science for the Social Good. In 2018, Marsh was awarded the Book Prize for the Promotion of Social and Personality Science by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology for her 2017 book The Fear Factor.

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Category:American women neuroscientists

Category:American neuroscientists

Category:1976 births

Category:Dartmouth College alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Georgetown University faculty

Category:Living people

Category:American women psychologists

Category:21st-century American psychologists

Category:People from Tacoma, Washington

Category:American women academics

Category:21st-century American women