Onurcan Yilmaz, Ph.D.

About

Onurcan Yilmaz, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at Kadir Has University (Istanbul) and the director of the MINT Lab (Moral Intuitions Lab). His research uses a cognitive science perspective to examine the cognitive and contextual origins of moral judgment and behavior. Dr. Yilmaz has received the “Best Young Scientist Award” (BAGEP) and the “Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award” in 2021, as well as the “Best Young Scientist Award” (TÜBA-GEBİP) and the TÜBİTAK Incentive Award in 2023. He has published in leading journals such as Nature Human Behaviour, Cognition, and Evolution and Human Behavior, and serves on the editorial boards of Judgment and Decision Making and Political Psychology.

Books by Onurcan Yilmaz, Ph.D.

Recent Posts

Can a CAPTCHA Make You Think About God?

You routinely click a few squares to prove you are human. We used that same task to try to make people think about God, and then tested whether it really worked.

Human Nature Is Real, Just Not the Way You Think

Is there really such a thing as human nature? The answer lies between two old extremes, and getting it right shapes how we face AI, authoritarianism, and climate.

Conspiracy Theories Aren’t Only for the Powerless

After Türkiye's 2023 earthquakes, a baseless conspiracy theory blamed a secret foreign weapon. New research shows who spread it most: supporters of the government in power.

Threat Isn’t One Thing

We expect danger to dull the mind. New research on 2,708 people shows the threat you face quietly shapes how you think—and your own words reveal which way.

Reading Dead Minds, Forecasting Live Ones

Psychology spent 150 years studying the present. A new science is reading minds across centuries—and one of its founders saw America's 2020 crisis coming a decade in advance.

Thinking Harder Won’t Save You

You've been told that better thinking means more reflection. The research suggests something stranger and points to what reflection alone can't deliver.

Are Humans Intuitively Cooperative, or Intuitively Selfish?

Does reflection make you more or less selfish? A new preregistered experiment reveals a surprising discovery.

On Intuitive Conservatives and Reflective Liberals

What is your position if you pass the second person in a race? Recent research suggests that your answer can give insights to your political ideology.

Thinking About God

Will reflecting about God's existence make you more or less religious? New experiments reveal a surprising discovery.