Michael Madden Prinzing

prinzing@live.unc.edu
michael.prinzing.net

Education
2017–2022 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill – PhD in Philosophy with a minor in
Psychology
2016 University of Oxford – BPhil in Philosophy
2014 University of California, Los Angeles – BA in Philosophy
Summa Cum Laude, 4.0 cumulative GPA

Academic Appointments
2019–present Teaching Fellow – UNC Philosophy
2018–present Graduate Fellow – Parr Center for Ethics
Fall 2018 Reading Group Leader – UNC Philosophy, Politics, & Economics
2018–2019 Teaching Assistant – UNC Philosophy
2017–present Graduate Researcher – Positive Emotions & Psychophysiology Laboratory
2016–2017 Lecturer – UCLA Philosophy

Awards, Fellowships & Funding

2020–2021 Maynard Adams Fellowship for the Public Humanities
Summer 2021 Research Grant – Templeton World Charity Foundation
Project title: “Understanding Whether, When, and How Artificial Intelligence
Can Strengthen Human Virtues” (Primary Investigator: Barbara Fredrickson)
Summer 2020 Research Grant – Institute for Humane Studies, Hayek Fund for Scholars
Project title: “Experimental philosophy of meaning in life”
Summer 2020 Research Grant – The North Carolina Policy Collaboratory
Project title: “To Wear or Not to Wear a Face Covering: Understanding
Socioemotional Factors that Predict Sustained Adherence to Novel Behaviors
for the Prevention of COVID-19” (Primary Investigator: Barbara Fredrickson)
Summer 2019 Research Grant – Templeton World Charity Foundation
Project title: “Understanding Everyday Love: Do Increases in Positivity
Resonance Increase Virtuous Behavior?” (Primary Investigator: Barbara
Fredrickson)
2017–2018 Horace Williams Fellowship – UNC Philosophy
2014-2016 Ethics Scholarship in Post-Graduate Philosophy – St. Anne’s College,
University of Oxford
June 2014 Donald Kalish Prize for Intellectual Excellence – UCLA Philosophy
Publications
In prep Prinzing, M., & Fredrickson, B. “Social media use during the COVID-19
pandemic was associated with negative mental health but not positive mental
health”
Prinzing, M., & Fredrickson, B. “Do I really matter? Links between different
forms of perceived mattering and well-being before and during the COVID-19
pandemic”
Prinzing, M. “Meaningfulness as mattering: Can insight be gained by exploring
the implications of a platitude?”
Prinzing, M., & Fredrickson, B. “It’s easier to be good when life feels
meaningful: Perceived meaning in life promotes altruistic behavior”
Under review Prinzing, M. “The pluralistic theory of meaning in life”
Prinzing, M., Van Cappellen, P., & Fredrickson, B. “‘More than a momentary
blip’: Perceived cosmic mattering mediates the link between religiousness and
perceived meaning in life”
Prinzing, M., & Fredrickson, B. “No peace for the wicked? Belief in the
goodness of true selves explains the relationship between moral evaluations and
third-person happiness judgments”
Zhou, J., Le Nguyen, K., Prinzing, M., West, T., & Fredrickson, B. “The goods
in everyday love: Do increases in positivity resonance increase communal
virtues?”
2021 West, T. N., Le Nguyen, K. D., Zhou, J., Prinzing, M., Wells, J. C., &
Fredrickson, B. “How the affective quality of day-to-day social connections may
contribute to public health: Prosocial tendencies account for the links between
positivity resonance and behaviors that reduce the spread of COVID-19”,
Affective Science. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/x5rfz
Prinzing, M. “How to study well-being: A proposal for the integration of
philosophy with science”, Review of General Psychology, 25(2), 152-162.
https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680211002443
Prinzing, M., De Freitas, J., & Fredrickson, B. “The ordinary concept of a
meaningful life: The role of subjective and objective factors in third-person
attributions of meaning”, The Journal of Positive Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.1897866
Prinzing, M. “The meaning of ‘life’s meaning’”, Philosopher’s Imprint, 21(3), 1-14.
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0021.003
2020 Prinzing, M., Zhou, J., West, T., Le Nguyen, K., & Fredrickson, B. “staying ‘in
sync’ with others during COVID-19: Positivity resonance mediates cross-
sectional and longitudinal links between trait resilience and mental health”,
Journal of Positive Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1858336
Prinzing, M. “Going green is good for you: Why we need to change the way we
think about pro-environmental behavior”, Ethics, Policy & Environment.
https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2020.1848192
 Prinzing, M. “Positive psychology is value-laden—It’s time to embrace it”, The
Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(3), 289-297.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1716049
Prinzing, M. “Explanatory perfectionism: A fresh take on an ancient theory”,
Analysis, 80(4), 704-712. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anaa021
Prinzing, M. “Pathological moralizing: Is moral judgment a commitment
device?”, Ethics, 130(2), 228–236. https://doi.org/10.1086/705766
2018 Prinzing, M. “Friendly superintelligent AI: All you need is love” In V. Müller
(Ed.), Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence 2017. Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96448-5_31
Prinzing, M. “The revisionist’s rubric: Conceptual engineering and the
discontinuity objection”, Inquiry, 61(8), 854–880.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2017.1385522

Presentations
July 2021 “What does it mean to matter? Different kinds of perceived mattering display
differential relationships with positive and negative aspects of well-being”
International Positive Psychology Association World Congress – Online
“‘Staying in sync’ with others during COVID-19: Positivity resonance and
mental health during a pandemic”
International Positive Psychology Association World Congress – Online
April 2021 “Positivity feels more meaningful when co-experienced: Positivity resonance is
uniquely associated with perceived meaningfulness in day-to-day experiences”
Society for Affective Science Annual Conference – Online
Feb. 2021 “Staying ‘In Sync’ with Others During COVID-19: Positivity Resonance
Mediates Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Links between Trait Resilience and
Mental Health”
Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Congress – Online
Dec. 2020 “The Effects of a Cosmic Perspective on Experienced Meaning in Life”
Southern Society for Philosophy & Psychology – Online
July 2020 “Meaningfulness as mattering: Unexpected implications of a platitude”
3rd International Conference on Philosophy & Meaning in Life – Online
March 2020 “Going green is good for you: Why we need to change the way we talk about
pro-environmental behavior”
Philosophy, Politics, & Economics Society – New Orleans, LA
March 2020 “How to study well-being: An interdisciplinary approach”
Philosophy, Politics, & Economics Society – New Orleans, LA
June 2019 “The interpretation theory of life’s meaning”
Haifa Conference on the Meaning of Life – University of Haifa
May 2019 “Positive psychology is value laden—It’s time to embrace it”
Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology Conference – University of Texas, Dallas
 April 2019 “How to be an internalist without being an ‘internalist’ about reasons”
Annual Meeting of the Ohio Philosophical Association –Wittenberg University
April 2019 “The folk concept of meaning in life: Subjective or objective?”
Albany Experimental Philosophy Conference – State University of New York, Albany
March 2019 “Learning from experience: How openness improves prospective deliberation”
Value and Agency Conference – University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Aug. 2018 “Interpreting life: An explanation for why meaning in life is objective”
1st International Conference on Philosophy & Meaning in Life – University of Hokkaido
June 2018 “Engineering a concept of well-being”
Annual Meeting of the Society for Philosophy & Psychology – University of Michigan
Nov. 2017 “Friendly superintelligent AI: All you need is love”
The Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence – University of Leeds
June 2016 “The functional theory of concepts”
The Ockham Society – University of Oxford

Teaching
Fall 2020 Philosophy of Social Science
Spring 2020 “Making Sense of Ourselves”
Fall 2019 Philosophy of Social Science
Spring 2019 Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Fall 2018 Introduction to Moral Theory
Spring 2017 Introduction to Philosophy of Science
Winter 2016 Introduction to Political Philosophy
Fall 2016 Introduction to Philosophy of Mind

Public Engagement
June 2020 Article: “Four Ways to Feel Good on a Hard Day in Lockdown” – Greater
Good Science Center at University of California, Berkley
May 6, 2020 Public talk: “The Science of Connection & Living Well During Pandemic
Times” – Science Café at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
2018–2020 Invited judge: The National High School Ethics Bowl
2018–2020 Invited judge: The North Carolina High School Ethics Bowl
2017–present Discussion group: Carolina Meadows retirement home
2016–present Blog: The Practical Philosopher

Service
Volunteering UNC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic; Chapel Hill Creek Cleanup 2021
 Supervising Senior Honors Thesis (in Psychology): Catherine Sappenfield
Post-Baccalaureate Research Assistant: Catherine Garton
Undergraduate Research Assistants: Alex Stubblebine, Jackie De Melo, Kimani
Smith, Louisa Swintosky
Refereeing Review of General Psychology, Clinical Psychological Science, PLOS ONE, The
International Journal of Wellbeing, Mind, Philosophical Studies, Ratio, Springer
Books
Administrative Graduate Students’ Committee, Graduate-Faculty Liaison (represented graduate
students at faculty meetings), Speaker Series Committee (organized out-of-town
speaker visits)