Research Interests:
Cognition and behavior
Areas of Interest:
Prosocial behavior
Xenophobia
Cognitive evolution
Current Projects: Xenophilia in bonobos, Other-regarding preferences in bonobos, Xenophobia in humans, Trust formation in domestic dogs
Research Summary:
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.