Sarah Mathew

Yan, M., Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2023 “Doing what others do” does not stabilize continuous norms, PNAS Nexus 2(3) pgad054, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad054

Theiss Bendixen, Aaron D Lightner, Coren Apicella, Quentin Atkinson, Alexander Bolyanatz, Emma Cohen, Carla Handley, Joseph Henrich, Eva Kundtová Klocová, Carolyn Lesorogol, Sarah Mathew, Rita A McNamara, Cristina Moya, Ara Norenzayan, Caitlyn Placek, Montserrat Soler, Tom Vardy, Jonathan Weigel, Aiyana K Willard, Dimitris Xygalatas, Martin Lang, Benjamin Grant Purzycki. 2023. Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 5, E18. doi:10.1017/ehs.2023.15

Mathew, S. 2022. Turkana warriors’ call to arms: how an egalitarian society mobilizes for cattle raids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B. 377 (1851) 20210144.       

Taravella Oill, A.M., Handley, C., Howell, E. K., Stone, A. C., Mathew, S†., Wilson, M. A†. 2022. Genomic analysis reveals geography rather than culture as the predominant factor shaping genetic variation in northern Kenyan human populations. American Journal of Biological Anthropology https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24521

Benjamin Grant Purzycki, Aiyana K. Willard, Eva Kundtová Klocová, Coren Apicella, Quentin Atkinson, Alexander Bolyanatz, Emma Cohen, Carla Handley, Joseph Henrich, Martin Lang, Carolyn Lesorogol, Sarah Mathew, Rita A. McNamara, Cristina Moya, Ara Norenzayan, Caitlyn Placek, Montserrat Soler, Tom Vardy, Jonathan Weigel, Dimitris Xygalatas & Cody T. Ross (2022) The moralization bias of gods’ minds: a cross-cultural test, Religion, Brain & Behavior, 12:1-2, 38-60, DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2021.2006291                                                                                          

Vardy, T., Moya, C., Placek C.D, Apicella, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Klocová E.K., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, S. A., Purzycki, B. G., Soler, M., Weigel,  J. L., Willard, A. K., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A., Henrich, J., Lang, M., Atkinson Q. D. 2022. The religiosity gender gap in 14 diverse societies. Religion, Brain & Behavior 12 (1-2): 18-37.                                                                                  

Baimel, A., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Henrich, J., Klocová, E.K., Lang, M., Lesogorol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, R., Moya, C., Norenzayan, A., Placek, C. D., Soler, M., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Willard, A., Xygalatas, D., Purzycki, B. 2022. Material insecurity predicts greater commitment to moralistic and less commitment to local deities: a cross-cultural investigation. Religion, Brain & Behavior 12(1-2): 4-17.    

Zefferman, M.* and Mathew, S.  2021. Combat Stress in a Small-scale Society Suggests Divergent Evolutionary Roots for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118:15 e2020430118.          

Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2021. Arbitration supports reciprocity when there are frequent perception errors. Nature Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01008-1



Zefferman, M. and Mathew, S. An evolutionary theory of moral injury with insights from Turkana warriors. Evolution and Human Behavior 41(5): 341-353 (2020). 

 

Handley, C. and Mathew, S. Human large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups. Nature Communications 11, 702 (2020). 



Lang, M., Purzycki, B., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Colleran, H., Curtis, R., Handley, C., Klocova, E., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., Moya, C., Placek, C., Soler, M., Stagnaro, N., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A. and Henrich, J. 2019. Moralizing gods, impartiality and religious parochialism across 15 societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B 286 (1898): 20190202 



Ghrear S. E., Chudek M., Flung K., Mathew, S., and Birch, S. A. J. 2019. Cultural Variations in the Curse of Knowledge: the Curse of Knowledge Bias in Children from a Nomadic Pastoralist Culture. Journal of Cognition and Culture 9 (3-4): 366-384  

S Mathew. 2017. How the second-order free rider problem is solved in a small-scale society. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. Vol 107 (5) 578-81.

S Mathew, C Perreault. 2016. Cultural history, not ecological environment, is the main determinant of human behavior. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B 283 (1826).

Richerson, P., Baldini, R., Bell, A., Demps, K., Frost, K., Hillis, V., Mathew, S., Newton, E., Narr, N., Newson, L., Ross, C., Smaldino, P., Waring, T., Zefferman, M. 2016. Cultural group selection follows Darwin's classic syllogism for the operation of selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39, e58

Richerson, P., Baldini, R., Bell, A., Demps, K., Frost, K., Hillis, V., Mathew, S., Newton, E., Narr, N., Newson, L., Ross, C., Smaldino, P., Waring, T., Zefferman, M. Cultural Group Selection Plays and Essential Role in Explaining Human Cooperation. A Sketch of the Evidence. 2016. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39, e30

Mathew, S. and Perreault, C. 2015. Behavioral variation in 172 small-scale societies indicates social learning to be the main mode of human adaptation. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. Published online 17 June 2015. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.0061

Zefferman M., Baldini R. and Mathew S. 2015. Solving the puzzle of human warfare requires an explanation of battle raids and cultural institutions.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(20): E2557.

Mathew, S. 2015. Are Cultural and Evolutionary Views of Human Warfare Converging? A Review of “War, Peace and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views, edited by Douglas P. Fry (Oxford University Press, 2015)”. Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution 6 (1). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4125090f

Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2015. Third-party monitoring and sanctions aid the evolution of language. Evolution and Human Behavior. Published online Jun 23 2015. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.06.002

Mathew, S.  2015. The evolution of human cooperation. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd edition 11: 259-266.

Zefferman, M. and Mathew, S. 2015. An Evolutionary Theory of Large-scale Human Warfare: Group-structured Cultural Selection. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News and Reviews 24(2): 50-61.

Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2014. The cost of cowardice: third-party punitive sentiments towards free riders in Turkana raids.­­­ Evolution and Human Behavior 35: 58-64

Panchanathan, K., Mathew, S. and Perreault, C. 2014. Explaining group-level traits requires distinguishing process from product. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37(3): 269-270.

Mathew, S., Boyd, R. and van Veelen, M. 2013. Human cooperation among kin and close associates may require enforcement of norms by third parties. In: Cultural Evolution, ed. P. J. Richerson and M. Christiansen. Strüngmann Forum Report 12, series editor J. Lupp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Jordan, F. M., C. van Schaik, P. François, H. Gintis, D. B. M. Haun, D. J. Hruschka, M. A. Janssen, J. A. Kitts, L. Lehmann, S. Mathew, P. J. Richerson, P. Turchin, and P. Wiessner. 2013. Cultural evolution of the structure of human groups. In: Cultural Evolution, ed. P. J. Richerson and M. Christiansen. Strüngmann Forum Report 12, series editor J. Lupp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bowles, S., Boyd, R. Mathew, S. and Richerson , P. J. 2012. The punishment that sustains cooperation is often coordinated and costly. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35(1): 20-21

Perreault, C. and Mathew, S. 2012. Dating the origin of language using phonemic diversity. PLoS ONE 7(4): e35289.

​Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2011. Reply to Baumard and Lienard: Mechanistic accounts need to specify why reputation systems yield cooperative outcomes on observed scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(39): E754.

Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2011. Punishment sustains large-scale cooperation in prestate warfare. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (28): 11375 – 11380

Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2009. When does optional participation allow the evolution of cooperation? Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 276: 1167 – 1174

Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2007. A Narrow Road to Cooperation, Science, 316: 1858 – 1859.