|
|
| Name |
Boyd, Robert T. |
| Location
|
Arizona State University |
| Primary Field
|
Anthropology |
| Secondary Field
|
Evolutionary Biology |
|
|
 Research Interests
|
|
Rob Boyd’s research focusses on the role of culture in human evolution. While social learning is common in nature, the cumulative evolution of complex culturally transmitted traits is unique to our species. Such cultural adaptation has allowed humans to achieve a greater ecological and geographic range than any other species. Rob’s research focusses on understanding the population dynamics of cultural information, and how organic evolutionary processes gave rise to the psychological mechanisms that make cumulative cultural evolution possible. He has also tried to understand how cultural evolution gives rise to singular features of human behavior, especially our tendency to engage in costly behavior that benefits large groups of unrelated individuals. This research combines mathematical theory and both experimental and ethnographic field work in Fiji. |
|
|
|