Diverse lines of theoretical and empirical research are converging on the notion that human
evolution has been substantially influenced by the interaction of our cultural and genetic …

Humans are outstanding in their ability to cooperate with unrelated individuals, and
punishment–paying a cost to harm others–is thought to be a key supporting mechanism …

Effective states govern by some combination of enforcement and voluntary compliance. To
contain the COVID-19 pandemic, a critical decision is the extent to which policy makers rely …

We develop a cultural evolutionary theory of the origins of prosocial religions and apply it to
resolve two puzzles in human psychology and cultural history:(1) the rise of large-scale …

A few centuries ago, capitalism set in motion an explosion of economic productivity. Markets
and private property had existed for millennia, but what other key institutions fostered …

Altruism—benefiting fellow group members at a cost to oneself—and parochialism—hostility
toward individuals not of one's own ethnic, racial, or other group—are common human …

Of paramount importance to the natural sciences, the principles of Darwinism, which involve
variation, inheritance, and selection, are increasingly of interest to social scientists as well …

Game theory is central to understanding human behavior and relevant to all of the
behavioral sciences—from biology and economics, to anthropology and political science …

Since Darwin, intergroup hostilities have figured prominently in explanations of the evolution
of human social behavior. Yet whether ancestral humans were largely “peaceful” or “warlike” …

Because mutually beneficial cooperation may unravel unless most members of a group
contribute, people often gang up on free-riders, punishing them when this is cost-effective in …