Guiding Questions
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How has culture shaped our species genetic evolution, including our physiology, anatomy and psychology? How can we use evolutionary theory to understand how people learn and transmit culture, and how does this lay a foundation for building a theory of cultural evolution? How can we understand human social status? What’s the nature of prestige? How can we explain the breadth, intensity and peculiar character of human sociality and cooperation? What role has war and other forms of intergroup conflict played in human evolution, particularly in the evolution of cooperation and sociality? In only about 12,000 years, how did human societies expand from relatively small-scale hunter-gatherer bands to vast and complex nation states? What drives innovation and the process of cumulative cultural evolution? How does cultural evolution shape our psychology, brains, motivations, hormonal responses, intuitive reactions, beliefs, worldviews and preferences? How can we account for the immense psychological variation we observe across the globe? How can we explain the peculiar psychological and behavioral patterns observed in societies that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD societies)? |
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What drove human evolution? How did our species go from being a relatively unremarkable primate a few million years ago to the most successful species on the globe?
Joe Henrich on Twitter
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No other country has been this far into the pandemic and still had the number of cases growing at the rates the U.S. is seeing. (t.co/yEPNzjICd9) t.co/QjoGl0LDgT
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Just learned that the elephants in "elephant sounds for kids" on YouTube are making a whole range of different sounds, not just trumpeting. I noticed because my child is now doing trumpeting, rumbling, chirping, and roaring. t.co/a7dWYy7HCC
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We are *REALLY* excited about having Rahul join us at MIT Sloan in the fall!! t.co/tIlzS0YpGo
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This stellar special issue will now soon be "in print." Many thanks to co-editors @markvanvugt1 & @RuedenChris & TLQ. The importance of understanding the underlying evolutionary processes - bio & cultural - of leadership becomes painfully clearer with every passing month. t.co/22LmS6yPp4
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So many cool studies in this month's issue of @NatureHumBehav. This one in particular is very cool. "The results we report are particularly pertinent given recent reports of a decline in global democracy, including in the stable democracies of the West" t.co/2vizTom1Pd?
