psychology

#866 Vibeke Ottesen: The Evolution of Human Violence, Juvenile Crime, and Abortion

Nov 27, 2023

Dr. Vibeke Ottesen is a Norwegian criminologist with an interest in how nature and nurture combined create human behavior. She has a popular science blog – Biosocial - where she comments on news, scientific findings and literature relevant to her subject – more often than not with an evolutionary-informed approach to understanding the subject matter. She has held numerous lectures on the benefits of an evolutionary-informed approach to understanding the cross-cultural sex and age differences in anti-social and criminal behavior. More»
#864 Colin DeYoung: Personality and Psychopathology

Nov 23, 2023

Dr. Colin DeYoung is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. In his research in personality psychology, he has examined the theoretical structure of personality and the biological basis of personality. More»
#861 Léo Fitouchi: Moral Emotions, Punishment, and Puritanical Morality

Nov 16, 2023

Léo Fitouchi is a PhD candidate in evolutionary and cognitive social sciences at École Normale Supérieure in Paris (Department of Cognitive Science). He is part of the Evolution and Social Cognition team of the Institut Jean-Nicod. He is mostly interested in understanding how human social behavior and cultural traditions are shaped by evolved cognitive mechanisms and cultural evolutionary processes –– with a particular focus on moral intuitions, supernatural beliefs, and social norms and institutions. More»
#857 Amy Arnsten: The Prefrontal Cortex, and How It Responds to Stress

Nov 6, 2023

Dr. Amy Arnsten is Albert E. Kent Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology, and member of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience at Yale University. Dr. Arnsten is an international expert on the molecular regulation of higher cortical circuits, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Arnsten's research examines the neural basis of higher cognition. Her work has revealed that the newly evolved cortical circuits that underlie higher cognition are uniquely regulated at the molecular level, conferring vulnerability in mental illness and age-related cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease. Her research has led to new treatments for cognitive disorders in humans, including the successful translation of guanfacine (IntunivTM) for the treatment of ADHD and related prefrontal cortical disorders. More»
#856 Frank Keil: The Development of Causal Thinking, Explanation, and the Institution of Science

Nov 3, 2023

Dr. Frank Keil is Charles C. & Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of Psychology & Linguistics and Director of the Cognition and Development lab at Yale University. At the most general level, he is interested in how we come to make sense of the world around us. One set of his studies is examining a level of explanatory insight that functions without knowledge of specific mechanisms and instead involves knowing what sorts of properties are causally potent in a domain and how they are likely to interact. He also asks how emerging knowledge of concrete mechanisms can link up frequency-based information with abstract explanatory principles as well as cause distortions in judgment. He is the author of Developmental Psychology: The Growth of Mind and Behavior, and other books. More»
#853 Coralie Chevallier: The Psychological Effects of Living in Harsh and Unpredictable Environments

Oct 27, 2023

Dr. Coralie Chevallier is a Researcher in the evolution and social cognition group, at the Cognitive Science Department of the École Normale Superieure – PSL. She is a behavioral scientist studying the evolutionary and cognitive determinants of social cognition. She has mainly focused on the way motivational factors affect people’s social behaviors. More»
#849 Claudio Tennie: The Differences Between Ape Culture and Human Culture

Oct 19, 2023

Dr. Claudio Tennie is a Tenured Research Group Leader (“Tools and Culture among Early Hominins”) in the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen. In addition, he is an adjunct scientist at the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes. His main research triangulates what (if anything) makes human cognition unique - as well as why (and relatedly, when this happened and how often). In particular, he uses various methods and pathways to study the factors and the prehistorical beginnings that enabled the typical modern human "variant of culture": cumulative culture of know-how. More»
#848 Robert Sapolsky - Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

Oct 16, 2023

Dr. Robert Sapolsky is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and Professor of Biology, of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and of Neurosurgery at Stanford University. Dr. Sapolsky is the author of several informative and comical books that present cutting-edge psychoneurobiological knowledge in an enjoyable, easy-to-read format. His latest book is Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will. More»
#839 Michael Muthukrishna: A Theory of Everyone

Sep 25, 2023

Dr. Michael Muthukrishna is an Associate Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics. His other affiliations include Affiliate of the Developmental Economics Group at STICERD, Affiliate of the Data Science Institute, Azrieli Global Scholar at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Technical Director of The Database of Religious History, and Board member of the One Pencil Project. His research focuses on the psychological and evolutionary processes that underlie culture and how culture is transmitted, maintained, and modified. He is the author of A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going. More»
#838 Jana Gallus: The Psychology and Economics of Incentives

Sep 22, 2023

Dr. Jana Gallus is Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Her research interests lie in behavioral economics, strategy, and innovation, with a focus on recognition incentives and their effects on decision-making. She investigates how incentive schemes can be designed to enhance employee motivation and organizational performance in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. More»