Writer. Editor. Cultural Spelunker.
Being pro-guilt is a provocative idea at a moment when parents and educators have come to almost fetishize empathy—when a child’s ability to put herself in another’s shoes seems like the apex of goodness. Photo by Jay
Originally Published: The Atlantic Magazine • April 2018
A few years ago, researchers in Germany set out to plumb the moral consciences of small children. They invited a series of 2- and 3-year-olds to play with a marble track in a lab. Read more...
Originally Published: Washington Post • May 9, 2010
Of the many articles I wrote for the Post, this op-ed, about the strange way time shifts when you have a child, got the greatest flood of reader emails. Read more...
Libby Copeland writes stories at the intersection of culture, science and human behavior. A staff reporter and editor for The Washington Post for over a decade, she now writes from New York for publications including Slate, New York Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, The New Republic, Fast Company, TheAtlantic.com, Glamour and more. As a staffer at The Washington Post, she wrote feature stories from the 2008 presidential trail, the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, and the 2005 Michael Jackson molestation trial. Copeland has appeared on MSNBC, CNN and NPR. Read More…