I study the cognitive, behavioral, and cultural underpinnings of the languages of the world, not only as they exist now but also as they unfolded over the course of the Holocene. I rely primarily on the statistical and computational analysis of diverse...
I am interested in understanding how human cultural practices evolve and, relatedly, how they shape psychology and behavior. My current work examines how social norms and institutions– such as those governing kinship, economic exchange, and community...
I am building mathematical models of social evolution and strategic interaction to study human culture and how it encodes and is encoded by our psychology, physiology, and environment. One focus is to explore how cooperative behavior emerges and deepens...
I study how features of contemporary industrialized societies, in contrast to our hunter‑gatherer past, shape young people’s social worlds, coming‑of‑age experiences, and mental health, with an eye toward improving how we support adolescents and young...
Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology
My research focuses on evolutionary approaches to psychology, decision-making and culture, and includes topics related to cultural learning, cultural evolution, culture...
