Sarah Mathew
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Phone: 480-965-6215
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Institute of Human Origins ISTB 7 226 Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287
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Mail code: 8404Campus: Tempe
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Sarah Mathew investigates why humans, unlike other animals, cooperate in groups comprising large numbers of genetically unrelated individuals, and how the evolution of this unique form of cooperation is tied to the origins of moral sentiments, cultural norms, and warfare. To address these issues, she combines formal modeling of the evolution of cooperation with fieldwork to test theories of how cooperation is sustained.
She has been running a field project in Kenya among the Turkana, a politically uncentralized pastoral society with limited market integration examining how and at what scale people cooperate when centralized political institutions are absent. Her findings have pointed to the foundational role of informal cultural norms, and thereby the human capacity for cultural transmission, in the emergence of human cooperation. As interethnic warfare is prevalent in this population in the form of cattle raiding, Mathew has also done detailed studies examining why Turkana warriors participate in these high-stakes battles where the costs of participation such as injury or death is borne by the individual, but the gains of victory are shared widely.
Through systematic empirical studies in this unique ethnographic context, Mathew's work has shed light on how and at what social scale humans solve the collective action problem in warfare without hierarchical formal military institutions. She is a recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a $200,000 award given to scholars identified as among the country's most creative thinkers to support research on challenges to democracy and international order.
- Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California-Los Angeles
- A.B. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University
Sarah's work centers on understanding how humans, unlike any other mammal, evolved to cooperate on extremely large scales that can include millions of people and how this ties with the origins of norms, moral sentiments and prosocial preferences. She approaches these questions by combining formal models of the evolution of cooperation with field studies among the Turkana, an acephalous nomadic pastoral society in Kenya. She has conducted systematic field studies among the Turkana that reveal what mechanisms sustain large-scale cooperation in inter-ethnic warfare when formal centralized institutions are absent. For more on her research, visit her homepage
Zefferman, M. and Mathew S. In press. Intergroup violence without essentialist beliefs: the case of Turkana cattle raiders. In Culture, Identity, and Essentialism: Anthropological and Psychological Perspectives, edited by Wagner W. and Moya. C.
Mathew, S. In press. Competition. Routledge Handbook of Pastoralism, edited by Moritz M., Samuels I., Schareika N. and Schlecht E.
Mathew, S. 2026. Cooperation. In M. C. Frank & A. Majid (Eds.), Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. MIT Press. Open access link to article
Mathew, S., Hadfield, G., Mwangi, D., and Reynolds, S. 2025. Metanorms generate stable yet adaptable normative social order in a politically decentralized society. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Open access link to article
Kendal, R. L., Miltiadis, E., Asatsa, S., Boyette, A. H., Chimento, M., Mathew, S., Reichard, B., Winship, L., and Wright, S. 2025. Introduction: Diversifying cultural evolution research and application to global futures. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Open access link to article
Lea, A. J., Caldas, I. V., Garske, K. M., Gerlinger, E. R., Arroyo, J. P., Echwa, J., Gurven, M., Handley, C., Kahumbu, J. C., Kamau, J., Kinyua, P., Lotukoi, F., Lopurudoi, A., Lowasa, S., Njeru, S. N., Mallarino, R., Martins, D. J., Messer, P. W., Miano, C., Muhoya, B., Peng, J., Phung, T., Rabinowitz, J. D., Roichman, A., Siford, R., Stone, A. C., Taravella Oill, A. M., Mathew, S., Wilson, M. A., and Ayroles, J. F. 2025. Adaptations to water stress and pastoralism in the Turkana of northwest Kenya. Science 389(6766): 1246–1251. Link to article | perspective | press release
Yan, M. Li, Z., Li Y. Boyd, R. and Mathew S. 2025. A norm about harvest division is maintained by a desire to follow tradition, not by social policing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122 (25), e2413214122. Open access link to article.
Zefferman, M, Baumgarten, M. Trumble, B. and Mathew, S. 2025. Little evidence that posttraumatic stress is associated with diurnal hormone dysregulation in Turkana pastoralists. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health 13(1) 77–91. Open access link to article.
Why reciprocity is common in humans but rare in other animals. Mathew, S. 2024. Nature 626, 955-956. Link to news and views article.
Lenfesty, H., Mathew, S., Fikes, T., Ross, C., Boyd, R. 2024. Third-party arbitration and forgiving strategies increase cooperation when perception errors are common. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. 291: 20240861. Link to article.
Mathew S. and Zefferman M. 2024. Group-structured cultural selection can explain both war and peace. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2024; 47: e18. Link to commentary.
Yan, M., Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2023 “Doing what others do” does not stabilize continuous norms, PNAS Nexus 2(3) pgad054. Open access link to article.
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. Open access link to article.
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. Link to article.
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 178(3):488-503. Open access link to article.
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. Link to article.
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. Link to article
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. Link to article
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. Open access link to article
Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2021. Arbitration supports reciprocity when there are frequent perception errors. Nature Human Behavior. Link to article
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). Open access link to article
Handley, C. and Mathew, S. Human large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups. Nature Communications 11, 702 (2020). Open access link to article
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 Open access link to article
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 Link to article
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. Link to article
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). Open access link to article
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 Link to article
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 Link to article
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. 282 (1810): 20150061 Link to article
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. Link to comment
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). Link to review
Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2015. Third-party monitoring and sanctions aid the evolution of language. Evolution and Human Behavior 36(6) 475-479 Link to article
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. Link to article
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 Link to article
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. Link to comment
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. Link to chapter
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. Link to chapter
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 Link to comment
Perreault, C. and Mathew, S. 2012. Dating the origin of language using phonemic diversity. PLoS ONE 7(4): e35289. Open access link to article
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. Link to comment
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 Link to article
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 Link to article
Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2007. A Narrow Road to Cooperation, Science, 316: 1858 – 1859. Link to article
Sponsored Research Projects - External Funding
2025 – 27 Principal Investigator on “Using Natural Experiments to Identify the Causal Effects of Islamic Prosocial Norms on Everyday Cooperation Among Sama Marine Foragers” from Templeton Religion Trust; $149,856 [in progress]
2025 – 26 Co-Investigator on “Risky meals: cultural and biological adaptations to reduce meat-borne disease risk” Leakey Foundation; (PI: Danson Mwangi Kareri); $30,000; Recipient Institution – Kenya Institute of Primate Research [in progress]
2023 – 24 Principal Investigator on “Normative infrastructure as a platform for reinventing social institutions” from Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund (sponsored by John Templeton Foundation); $111,603 [completed]
2021 - 23 Co-Investigator on “Evaluating community perceptions and ethical considerations in genetics research in small-scale populations (PI: Anne Stone)” from National Institutes of Health; $424,910 [completed]
2020 - 21 Principal Investigator on “RAPID: How social norms impact COVID-19 transmission behaviors” from National Science Foundation; $66882 [completed]
2014 - 17 Investigator on “Evolutionary Foundations of Human Uniqueness: Recovering Patterns of Cognition, Cumulative Culture and Cooperation” (PI: William Kimbel) from John Templeton Foundation. Grant total: $4, 934,107; percent allocation: 11% [completed]
2014 - 15 Collaborator Investigator on “The Emergence of Prosocial Religions” (PI: Ara Norenzayan)” from John Templeton Foundation to University of British Columbia. Amount to ASU for subproject conducted by S. Mathew: CAD 16,675 [completed]
Internal Grants
2025 – 26 Seed grant recipient for “Risky meals: The Risky Meals: Cultural and Biological Adaptations for Managing Meat-Borne Disease Risk”, Institute of Human Origins Founders Grant; $15,000 [in progress]
2015 - 21 Principal Investigator on "The evolution of human cooperation: field studies among Turkana pastoralists in Kenya", President's Strategic Initiative Funds; $495,385 [completed]
Courses
2026 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASM 591 | Seminar |
2025 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 501 | Professionalism |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASM 300 | Anthropological Sciences Sem |
2025 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASM 342 | Evolution of Human Behavior |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASM 310 | War & Peace: Evol Confl & Coop |
2024 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
2024 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASM 342 | Evolution of Human Behavior |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2023 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASM 579 | Proposal Writing |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASM 310 | War & Peace: Evol Confl & Coop |
2023 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
2023 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASM 342 | Evolution of Human Behavior |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2022 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASM 394 | Special Topics |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2022 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASM 342 | Evolution of Human Behavior |
| ASM 591 | Seminar |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASM 579 | Proposal Writing |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
2021 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
2021 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 592 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 584 | Internship |
- Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2015) $200,000 awarded to outstanding scholars in the social sciences and humanities addressing current and future challenges to U.S. democracy and international order)
Elected Leadership Roles
- President, Cultural Evolution Society (2023-24)
Keynote Speaker
- European Human Behavior and Evolution Association Conference, Montpellier, France (Apr 14-16, 2024)
- Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE) Conference, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany (Aug 24-26, 2023)
- Descent of Moral Sentiments Symposium, Utrecht University, Netherlands (Feb 13-15, 2017)
- Co-editor, Special Issue “Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B (2024 – 2025)
- Guest editor, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Dec 2020)
- Consulting Editor, Evolution and Human Behavior (2015-2016)
- Cultural Evolution Society
- Human Behavior and Evolution Society,
- European Human Behavior and Evolution Association
Postdoctoral supervision
- Danson Kareri Mwangi (Jan 2023 - Jun 2024)
- Matthew Zefferman (Nov 2015 - Aug 2017)
- Carla Handley (Dec 2014 - Aug 2017)
- Hillary Lenfesty (Aug 2015 - Aug 2017)
Doctoral Committee Chair/Co-chair
- Michael Baumgarten (Fall 2021 – now)
- Minhua Yan (Fall 2016 – Summer 2023)
- Liam Gleason (Fall 2017 – 2021)
Doctoral Committee Member
- Pietro Beltrame (Spring 2023 – now)
- Julia Phelps (Spring 2021 – now)
- Hovig Artinian (Spring 2021 – now)
- Angela Taravella (Spring 2017 – 2022)
- Rebecca Siford (Spring 2019 – 2025)
External Reader
- Asli Akdeniz (Spring 2023) University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ph.D. Economics
Master's Committee Member
- Maggie Hassler (2024 – now)
- Melanie Foreman (2019 – 22)
- Scott Collins (2018 – 19)
- Kelly Reina (2015 – 16)
- Leonid Tiokhin (2015 – 16)
- 2020 – now Associate Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
- 2013 – 2020 Assistant Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
- 2012 – 2013 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University
- 2011 – 2012 Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University
- Program Committee, Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference, May 22 - 25 2024, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Executive Program Committee Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics, Jun 27-29, 2024, University of Chicago
- Past President, Cultural Evolution Society (2024 – 2025)
- President Elect, Cultural Evolution Society (2021 – 2022)
- Postdoc Award Committee, Human Behavior and Evolution Society (2021)
- Executive committee member, Cultural Evolution Society (2019-2021)
- Inclusivity committee, Cultural Evolution Society 2nd Annual Meeting (2018)
- Election committee, Cultural Evolution Society (2016)
Conference/Workshops Organized
- “AI and Evolutionary Reasoning” international workshop, hosted by Institute of Human Origins at ASU, Johns Hopkins University and Fathom (Oct 16-17, 2025)
- “Understanding the origins of combat stress and moral injury through cross-cultural research” international workshop, hosted by Center for Evolution and Medicine, ASU (Mar 1-2, 2018)
- 2nd international annual meeting of the Cultural Evolution Society hosted by Arizona State University (Oct 22-24, 2018)
Interviews
- Transmissions, Talk Series by Cultural Evolution Society: Episode 2 What is WEIRD about human warfare. Jan 2026
- Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast): Culture, killing, and PTSD, Dec 2025.
- Game Changer Podcast by TWS Partners: How to achieve cooperation: learnings from fieldwork with the Turkana people, Feb 25, 2025
- Nature Podcast. Why are we nice? Altruism’s origins are put to the test. Feb 2024
- The Dissenter: Human sociality, cooperation, reciprocity and warfare. Episode 725, Oct, 2022
News Coverage
- "If you donate DNA what should scientists give in return? A pathbreaking new model" by
- Nurith Aizenman for NPR Goats and Soda and All Things Considered (Jan 2024)
- "Engaging underrepresented communities in research" by Deanne Dunbar Dolan and Rachel H. Lee for ELSIhub, Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Research Program, National Human Genome Research Institute (May 2023)
- “It’s not easy to take a life’: is coping with PTSD harder for US soldiers?” by Manvir Singh for The Guardian (Jun 2021)
- “Shared Truth Is Key to Human Cooperation” by Arunas Radzvilavicius for Psychology Today (Feb 2021)
- “Do wild animals get PTSD? Scientists probe its evolutionary roots” by Sharon Levy for Knowable Magazine (Aug 2021)
- “What do babies and warring groups have in common? Altruism” by Eoin O'Carroll for Christian Science Monitor (Feb 2020)
- “Evolution is evolving: 13 ways we must rethink the theory of nature” by Michael Le Page et al for New Scientist (Sep 2020)
- “The Evolution of Shaming” by Ed Yong for The Atlantic (Feb 2016)
- “Why Its Brave To Think Like A Coward” by Chris Walsh for Aeon (Feb 2015)
- “Friends, not foes, boost warriors’ success” by Elizabeth Wade for Science (Nov 2014)
- “Transformers: 10 revolutions that made us human” by Colin Barras for New Scientist, (Oct 2014)
- “It Is Human Nature to Cooperate With Strangers” by Michael Marshall for New Scientist (Jun 2011)
Public Talks
- “Contemporary behavioral adaptations in a semi-arid savanna population.” Institute of Human Origins Lucy 50th Anniversary Lecture, Walton Center for Planetary Health, Arizona State University. (Mar 2024)
- “Is the cultural boundary also the moral boundary?” Project presentation for the “Evolution of Human Uniqueness” Templeton Research Symposium hosted by Institute of Human Origins at Tempe Center for the Arts (Apr 2017)
- Panelist, Origins Project Great Debates “Transcending Our Origins: Violence, Humanity and the Future” hosted by Steven Pinker, Gammage Memorial Auditorium, Tempe (Apr 2014)
Recorded Lectures
- "The cultural evolution of cooperative norms", University of Liverpool Evolutionary Anthropology Webinar Series (Feb 25, 2021)
- "War and peace: the cultural evolution of conflict and cooperation", Dynamics of Social Complexity Webinar on Human Origins and Cultural Evolution (Mar 23, 2021)
- "Peer sanctioning and cultural group selection promotes large-scale cooperation", Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture, University of California Los Angeles (2017)