Richard Sosis

I am interested in the evolution and neural bases of social cognition and music, particularly how they relate to cooperation, morality, and religion. Email: daniel.finkel@uconn.edu

On the whole, my interests in anthropology centralize around the interdisciplinary endeavor to bridge the cognitive and behavioral studies of religion, morality, and cooperation. As such, my particular interests include: cognitive evolution, phenomenology, moral behavior, collective action problems, religious signaling, and agency detection. Email: jordan.kiper@uconn.edu

My interests lie in the evolution of religion. I am especially focused on how religion pertains to cooperation and othering, and how these behaviors may potentially be maladaptive. Email: erika.phillips@uconn.edu

For the past few years, I have been researching the cognitive science of humor, agency-detection, and religious beliefs. Presently, most of my attention is devoted to understanding the interactions between our evolved cognitive mechanisms, the socioecological contexts in which they operate, and how these interactions inform religious traditions. Email: benjamin.purzycki@uconn.edu

My main interest is the evolution of cooperation and the role that different institutions play in influencing human cooperation. I am also interested in social learning, cultural evolution, child development, and human reproductive ecology. Email: john.shaver@uconn.edu

My research examines the role of risk in human decision-making. I am particularly interested in how environmental/physical variables, like foraging, and social variables, like religion, influence risk preferences, and how this translates into behavior. My other interests include religious signaling, the psychology of religious beliefs, and the interaction between human biology and economics. Email: paul.swartwout@uconn.edu