FACULTY | |
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Nicolas Baumard I am interested in using evolutionary and psychological approaches in the social sciences, in particular in economics. More specifically, I use: - Biological market theory to explain why moral judgments and cooperative behaviors are based on considerations of fairness; - Life-history theory to explain behavioral variability across culture, history, social classes and developmental stages; - Dual process theory to explain the content of human reflections and religious thinking (in particular on morality and gods); - all of the above to explain why some public policies naturally work better |
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Jean-Baptiste André I was trained as a theoretician in evolutionary biology, and I’m interested in understanding behavior, in particular human behavior, based on an evolutionary perspective. My work focuses on two major questions: (1) Why is human cooperation universally constrained by the logic of fairness? To answer this question, I develop models in collaboration with Nicolas Baumard and Stéphane Debove. We show that, whereas pairwise reciprocity per se is undertermined (what economists call the folk theorem), the evolution of reciprocal cooperation becomes constrained by fairness principles when individuals can freely engage in a diverse range of social interactions, and choose among them. (2) Why is reciprocal cooperation so rare among non humans but so frequent in humans? To answer this question, with the help of models, I show that reciprocal cooperation is not a regular form of adaptation that can evolve by natural selection. Rather its evolution, like the evolution of communication, requires the recycling of functions evolved intially for a different purpose. I’m interested in showing how this constraint explains both the rarity of reciprocal cooperation among non-humans, and the form that it takes in humans. |
ASSOCIATE FACULTY | |
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Hugo Mercier I am an evolutionary and cognitive psychologist working on the function and workings of reasoning. With Dan Sperber, we have developed the argumentative theory of reasoning, which offers a new function for human reasoning: to find and evaluate arguments so as to convince others and only be convinced when it is appropriate. I also study the cognitive mechanisms with which people evaluate communicated information. |
POST DOCS | |
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Pierre Jacquet I am a cognitive neuroscientist interested in explaining social cognition, and in particular conformism, using evolutionary lense. My project in the Evolution and Social Cognition aims at using life-history theory to study how risk-taking explains inter-individual variability in social learning. |
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Lou Safra |
PhD STUDENTS | |
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Félix Geoffroy I am interested in understanding the evolutionary origins of human cooperation. Specifically, my aim is to explain why cooperation emerged in humans (and not other animals) and how evolution favored a fairness-based type of cooperation. ![]() |
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Rita Abdel Sater I am interested in using nudges and behavioural approaches more generally to promote sustainable behaviour and cooperative behaviour in Paris. I'm interested in applying both economics and psychology to produce more efficient public policies. |
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Paul Ecoffet I'm interested in the evolution of cooperation. I am using evolutionary robotics as a modelling and simulation tool in order to introduce a more realistic genotype to phenotype mapping. |
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Hugo Mell I am interested in identifying underlying causes of variation in cooperative behaviors in humans. In particular, I will try to assess the importance of ecological parameters, such as harshness and unpredictability of the environment, in shaping this behavioral variation. Drawing on life history theory, I will also examine if inter-individual differences in cooperative behaviors can be integrated into more general life strategies which include life-history traits and other social behaviors. |
MASTER STUDENTS | |
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Sacha Yesilaltay |
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Marc Pichot de la Marandais |
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS | |
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Guillaume Dezecache I am postdoctoral researcher for the FRONTSEM ERC project (directed by Philippe Schlenker, in collaboration with Emmanuel Chemla and Klaus Zuberbühler) and I work on the semantics of primate alarm calls |
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Ricardo Horta I am interested in how psychology can help to better understand and to improve institutions. Particularly, I am studying how advances in decision-making science can inform public policy in general and the institutional design of the judicial system. |
ALUMNI | |
Christina Ioannou Perline Demange |
PhD Student, 2014-2017 M2 Student, 2016-2017 Post-doc 2013-2015, now post doc at Yale University |
PhD Student 2012-2015 |
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Stéphane Lambert |
PhD Student 2013-2016 |
Lucien Castex |
Master Student (M2) 2013-2014. |
Raphaël Delage |
Master Student (M2) 2014-2015. |
Céline Dusautois |
Master Student (M2) 2014-2015. |
Judith Lenglet |
Master Student (M2) 2014-2015, now President of Cog'Innov. |
Helena Miton |
Master Student (M2) 2013-2014, now PhD student at the CEU in Budapest |
Tristan Tissot |
Master Student (M2) 2013-2014, now PhD Student in Montpellier University |
Arnaud Poubland |
Master Student (M1) 2014-2015 |
Martin Dockendorff |
Master Student (M1) 2015-2016, now PhD Student in Munich. |
Mona Joly |
Master Student (M1) 2015-2016 |
Chloé Svatek |
Master Student (M1) 2015-2016 |
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