Adam Feltz

Dr. Adam Feltz serves as a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oklahoma. He specializes in theoretical and applied science for ethical and informed decision making. Dr. Feltz is regarded as one of the world’s experts on the psychology and philosophy of ethical disagreement and is best known for his groundbreaking work identifying sources of fundamental philosophical biases in moral judgment. The discovery of these biases culminated in the creation of Ethical Interaction Theory, which is a systematic and measurable approach to evaluate ethical costs and benefits of interactions that influence others (e.g., design of decision aids, training systems, interactive software, risk communications). This theory has helped to develop policy analysis for choice architecture design and human factors engineering. Dr. Feltz has more than 80 publications on topics ranging from assessment of decision biases in surrogate decision making to the design of ethical decision support and communication in health, medicine, finance, food manufacturing, natural resource management, and other domains. His current research focuses on laws and policies that directly impact animal welfare. Dr. Feltz is also an award-winning teacher and scholar whose research has been supported by agencies such as the National Science Foundation, USGS, the UCLA Law School, Animal Charity Evaluators, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Kirkpatrick Foundation, and the Templeton Foundation. Dr. Feltz serves as a co-founding member and co-director of RiskLiteracy.org and is a member of OU’s the Center for Applied Social Research. He is also a member of the editorial board at Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied and Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations. 

Selected Publications:

Feltz, A., & Cokely, E.T. (2024). Diversity and Disagreement: From Fundamental Biases to Ethical Interactions. Palgrave MacMillan. Open Access DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61935-9

Offer-Westort, T., Feltz, A., Bruskotter, J., & Vucetich, J. (2020). What is an endangered species?: Judgments about acceptable risk. Environmental Research Letters, 15, 014010.

Feltz, S. & Feltz, A. (2019). Consumer accuracy at identifying plant-based and dairy-based milk products. Food Ethics, 4, 85-112. 

Feltz, S., & Feltz, A. (2019). The Knowledge of Animals as Food Scale. Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, 7, 19-45.

Feltz, A., & Cokely, E.T. (2019) Extraversion and compatibilist intuitions: A ten-year retrospective and meta-analysis. Philosophical Psychology, 32, 388-403.

Feltz, A., & Cokely, E.T. (2017). Informing ethical decision making. In K. Rommelfanger & L.S. Johnson (Eds.) Handbook of Neuroethics (pp. 304-318). New York: Routledge.