Cushman's research investigates how people learn and make decisions in social contexts. He is especially interested in moral judgment and decision-making. Current research projects include: Why, and how, did punishment evolve? What are the emotional systems that prevent us from doing harm to each other? How do humans make sense of each others' behavior? Among all the things we could do at any moment, how do we decide which ones are worth considering? He uses  empirical methods with computational modeling in order to make progress on these questions.