#  Dr. Rita McNamara 

 



   ![Rita](/sites/g/files/omnuum5841/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/culture_cognition_coevol_lab/files/rita.jpg?itok=wAzJUz8q) 

 

  I came to UBC with a joint BA in Anthropology and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. Between my time at Wash U and UBC, I spent a year as the lab manager for Karen Wynn's Infant Cognition Center at Yale University. In my work, I am interested in the role of cultural transmission for the development of religious belief, and the extent to which explicit belief matters. I am also interested in the ways various aspects of culture (such as norms) are represented in the mind, and how these impact life outcomes. More broadly I am interested in how representations of various aspects of culture and the degree of adherence to them work together to drive cultural change over time. *([website](https://ramcnama.wordpress.com/))*

 **Major Awards**

 2019: Association for Psychological Science (APS) 2018 Rising Star: “recognizes outstanding psychological scientists in the earliest stages of their research career post-PhD whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions”

 2018: Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) 2017 Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize: “a single outstanding contribution of an article or book chapter judged to provide the most innovative theoretical contribution to social/personality psychology within a given year.” ($500 honorarium; split among winning authors). Awarded for: Norenzayan, A., Shariff, A. F., Gervais, W. M., Willard, A., McNamara, R.A., Slingerland, E., & Henrich, J. (2016). The Cultural Evolution of Prosocial Religions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. doi:10.1017/S0140525X14001356, e0

 2015: Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) New Investigator award: Best graduate student paper submitted for presentation (My brother’s keeper: Kinship psychology directing cooperative coordination in Yasawa, Fiji.) at the 27th Annual HBES Meeting ($500)

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 *Dr.* *Rita McNamara now works as a Lecturer in Cross-cultural Psychology at *Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and is the Director of the Mind in Context lab.**