Sergey Gavrilets: University of TennesseeHumans exhibit strong egalitarian syndrome, i.e. the complex of cognitive perspectives, ethical principles, social norms, and individual and collective attitudes promoting equality. The universality of egalitarianism in hunter-gatherers suggests that it is an ancient, evolved human pattern. The evolutionary emergence of this syndrome is one of the most intriguing unsolved puzzles […]

Robert Frank: CornellNote: this talk will begin at 3:30pm. Economists since Adam Smith have insisted that competition produces the greatest good for the greatest number. But as Charles Darwin emphasized, individual and group interests do not always coincide. And when they clash, individual interests tend to trump, often resulting in wasteful arms races. The Darwinian […]

Clark Barrett: UCLAThe capacity of organisms to deal with evolutionary novelty has been regarded by some as a puzzle. If adaptations have been shaped by natural selection operating in the past, then how can they possibly respond adaptively to objects, events, and situations that clearly did not exist until recently? This has been regarded as […]

Adrian Jaeggi: UCSBFood sharing is a vibrant field of study that has provided important insights into the evolution of cooperation, life history, and social learning. Common functional explanations for sharing include nutritional and informational benefits to offspring, tolerated scrounging, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and costly signaling. I review the most important findings regarding food sharing […]

Jeff Snyder: UCLAIn general, women in the U.S. appear to prefer prestigious men to dominant men under most circumstances. However, some women select domineering men as long-term intimate partners – sometimes at a high cost to themselves. Such women are likely sensitive to their self-perceived vulnerability to danger, and hence may select domineering men when […]

Hanah Chapman: Ohio State UniversityBeing lied to, cheated upon, stolen from—these are among life’s most emotional experiences, and even watching them happen to someone else can trigger strong feelings. Recent work has confirmed the important role of emotion in human morality, but less is known about precisely which emotions are involved and how emotion exerts […]

Hillard Kaplan: The University of New MexicoThis talk examines what we have learned about the aging process among Tsimane forager- horticulturalists, and the implications of our results for understanding human life history evolution. I review our latest findings on behavior, inter-generational transfers, physical function, immunocompetence and cardiovascular disease. Tsimane men and women remain net producers […]

Noa M. Pinter-Wollman: The University of California, San DiegoThe behavior of biological systems emerges from the self-organization of multiple agents that interact with one another and follow simple local rules. However, not all individuals within the system are identical. I study how individual variation in the behavior of worker ants affects the behavior of the […]

Steven J. Heine: University of British ColumbiaA core psychological motivation for people is to view themselves positively, yet for decades the vast majority of evidence for this motivation came from North American samples. More recent research finds that this motivation varies importantly across cultures, because there are different kinds of positive views that are prioritized […]

Frances Chen: University of FreiburgSocial relationships are a source of support and comfort in our lives, as well as a source of stress and conflict. Thus, the ability to regulate responses to both positive and negative emotions and cognitions arising from social interactions can significantly influence both physical and mental health. In my talk, I […]