Jingzhi Tan, Graduate Assistant

Contact Info:

Office Location:	004A Biological Sciences Building
Office Phone:	919-660-7294
Email Address:
Web Page:

Education:

B.S.

Peking University, Beijing, China

2008

Specialties:

Cognitive Evolution
Behavioral Ecology and Physiology

Research Interests: Cognition and behavior

Current projects: Xenophilia in bonobos, Other-regarding preferences in bonobos, Xenophobia in humans, Trust formation in domestic dogs

Humans are incredibly skillful in working with others. We cooperate in large-scale for a long term with unfamiliar strangers even in a costly way. However, how human cooperation evolved remains a mystery. Are we ultra-cooperators because we evolved to be genuinely altruistic to others or because we became more trusting to strangers? I study the psychological mechanisms of cooperation and trust in humans, nonhuman primates and dogs. I take a comparative approach to examine what are unique (and not unique) in human cooperation and how these traits evolved.

Areas of Interest:

Prosocial behavior
Xenophobia
Cognitive evolution

Curriculum Vitae