Dorsa Amir, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience

I am a cognitive scientist studying how culture shapes the developing mind. 

Culture and cognition are deeply intertwined: culture both shapes cognition and is shaped by cognition, in turn. My research program explores this dynamic process, combining tools from developmental psychology, anthropology, and behavioral economics to better understand how these forces interact. Along with my research team at the Mind & Culture Lab and dozens of collaborators, I work with children and adults all across the globe, with a focus on those living in small-scale societies.

Culture → Cognition

The first avenue of my work explores the myriad ways in which cultural inputs influence cognitive processes. My research in this arena has primarily focused on the development of decision-making, exploring how variation in the socioecological environment influences our heuristics and preferences. These include both decision-theoretic preferences, such as risk tolerance and temporal discounting, and game-theoretic preferences, such as those underlying cooperation, morality, and identity. A central aim of this work is to gain insight into the structure of the human mind, identify which aspects of cognition are sensitive to cultural inputs and which develop more universally.

Cognition → Culture

A second avenue of my research concerns the ways in which cognition gives rise to culture. I focus primarily on cognitive tradeoffs across the lifespan, and in particular on the unique ways in which children interact with and learn about the world. In this work, I study how children’s unique cognitive strengths — such as creativity, play, and exploration — lead to the emergence of novel epistemic and cultural information. Further, I study how children’s interactions with one another give rise to autonomous peer cultures, and how these processes feed into cultural evolution and adaptation, more broadly.

Contact Info:

Office Location:
Email Address:
Web Pages:	http://www.dorsaamir.com http://www.mindandculturelab.com

Teaching (Spring 2026):

• PSY 103.01, DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Synopsis

  Social Sciences 136, MW 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

Education:

Ph.D.	Yale University	2018
B.S.	University of California, Los Angeles	2012

Keywords:

Developmental psychology • Developmental psychology--Cross-cultural studies

Recent Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

1. Confer, JA; Champ, AM; Amir, D; Schleihauf, H; Engelmann, JM, Group membership biases children's evaluation of evidence., Nature communications, vol. 16 no. 1 (December, 2025), pp. 11245 [doi]  [abs]
2. Gildner, TE; Liebert, MA; Schrock, JM; Urlacher, SS; Amir, D; Harrington, CJ; Madimenos, FC; Cepon-Robins, TJ; Bribiescas, RG; Sugiyama, LS; Snodgrass, JJ, Salivary Testosterone, Age, and Adiposity Associations Among Shuar Males in Amazonian Ecuador Challenge Assumptions of "Normal" Testosterone Patterns., American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council, vol. 37 no. 11 (November, 2025), pp. e70166 [doi]  [abs]
3. Smith, JM; Mohamadpour, H; Engelmann, J; Davis, HE; Krieger, J; Sørensen, BG; Koster, J; Heysieattalab, S; Amir, D, No Developmental Differences in Preferences for Epistemic Versus Physical Uncertainty Across Three Diverse Cultures., Developmental science, vol. 28 no. 6 (November, 2025), pp. e70078 [doi]  [abs]
4. Davis, HE; Amir, D; Badiani, F; Kline, M; Ndlovu, N; Pope-Caldwell, S; Rawlings, B; Rosun, N; Wen, N, Studying childhood learning across cultures, in A Field Guide to Cross Cultural Research on Childhood Learning Theoretical Methodological Practical and Ethical Considerations for an Interdisciplinary Field (May, 2025), pp. 1-28 [doi]  [abs]
5. Milks, A; Amir, D; Hodson, C, Sharing your research: Communicating with the public, in A Field Guide to Cross Cultural Research on Childhood Learning Theoretical Methodological Practical and Ethical Considerations for an Interdisciplinary Field (May, 2025), pp. 253-257