I was invited to speak at the University of Michigan‘s RCGD Fall Seminar Series, co-sponsored by the Institute for Social Research and Department of Psychology. I presented my book, A Theory of Everyone, focusing on the theory, historical psychology, and cross-cultural differences in cognition.
My thanks to Shinobu Kitayama for inviting me and to University of Michigan for organizing the event.
I was invited by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to speak about cultural behavioral science and its applications in public policy. I explain how, by using cultural evolution as a theory of human behavior can help some of the challenges in behavioral science in terms of long term change and contextual factors that affect whether an intervention will work. This figure from a key paper presents the history of behavioral science that has led to cultural evolutionary behavioral science as an obvious next step.
The most relevant papers are:
April 21, 2022: Keynote speaker at Norms and Behavioral Change (NoBeC) Talks, Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics, .
I was invited to speak in the Norms and Behavioral Change (NoBeC) Talks at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Center for Social Norms and Behavioural Dynamics. I discussed some work on cultural evolutionary behavioral science and its applications in public policy (see also cultural evolutionary public policy).
My talk begins with an overview of the problem plaguing behavioral economics – the lack of a theoretical foundation that can guide policy interventions. I introduce cultural evolution as a possible solution to bridge the theoretical gap. By using cultural evolution as a theory of human behavior, improvements can be made in policy efficiency. For example, studying how social norms change and evolve over time will provide a foundation for implementing effective policy interventions in multicultural societies. Some of this history is captured in this figure from the paper:
Considering the historical path dependence of norms provides crucial in understanding why certain populations hold certain beliefs, like vaccine hesitancy and a distrust in healthcare systems. Identifying how people acquire cultural norms, and narrowing down the ultimate causes for behavior (through cultural distance tools like world.culturalytics.com) could provide insights into designing interventions that work.
Understanding cultural evolution and behavioral science can help reanalyze the literature on public policy, providing insights into why some approaches are successful while others are not. I explain how studying universal cognitive capabilities will provide a deeper understanding of norm change, and thus, improve policy design.
My thanks to the Center for Social Norms and the University of Pennsylvania for inviting me and organising the event.
I discussed the “Cultural Evolution of Cooperation and Cognition” at the Psychology Department at Harvard.
The paper most related to the talk is The Origins and Psychology of Human Cooperation and a preview of a book I’m currently working on “A Theory of Everyone”.
Many thanks for inviting and hosting me.
I was a panelist at the Behavioral Science for Global Good at Behavioral Insights Group (BIG) conference hosted by Harvard Business School (add link) / Harvard Kennedy School (add link). The goal of the panel was to offer insight into the ways in which behavioral science may need to change in the future in order to fulfill its stated mission to make a positive difference in the world—particularly on how to expand our focus beyond predominantly WEIRD researchers, WEIRD research topics, and WEIRD populations.
My fellow panelists included: