Cultural Evolution, Economic History, Experimental and Behavioral Economics
My research interest lies in cultural evolution. I draw on insights from economic history, experimental economics, and development economics. I am particularly interested in the co-evolution of informal and formal institutions and in the internalization of social norms.
Strategic Competition and Self-confidence (2023). Management Science (with S. Brilion, S. Grassi, and M. Grieder)
Social Norms and Dishonesty across Societies (2022). PNAS (with Diego Aycinena, Lucas Rentschler and Ben Beranek)
Kin Networks and Institutional Development (2022). Economic Journal. Winner of the Royal Economic Society Price 2022.
The Church, intensive kinship, and global psychological variation (2019). Science, 366, 6466 (with D. Bahrami-Rad, J. Beauchamp, & J. Henrich)
The Moral Machine Experiment (2018). Nature, 563, 59-64 (with E. Awad, S. Dsouza, R. Kim, J. Henrich, A. Shariff, J.-F. Bonnefon, & I. Rahwan)
Intrinsic Honesty and the Prevalence of Rule Violations across Societies (2016). Nature, 531, 496‑499 (with S. Gächter)
Affect and Fairness: Dictator Games under Cognitive Load (2014). Journal of Economic Psychology 41, 77-87 (with U. Fischbacher, C. Thöni, & V. Utikal)
Royal Economic Society Price for Best Paper 'Kin networks and institutional development' published in The Economic Journal
Emergent Venture Fellow
“Institutional legacy and interventions for cultural change: the role of pre-existing conditions for public policies effectiveness”, Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Grant, 2022 (£100K, CO-I with Macro Fabbri (PI) and Daniele Nosenzo)
“Religion, Family Structure and the Origins of Individual Freedom and
Economic Prosperity”, John Templeton Foundation, 2021 ($2.54 mio., Co-PI with Joseph Henrich)
“Honesty as a Moral Currency: a Cross-Cultural Study”, Honesty Project at Wake Forest University & John Templeton Foundation, 2021 ($200k, Co-PI with Ori Weisel (PI) and Shaul Shalvi)
The Church, Intensive Kinship and Global Psychological Variation: Washington Post, Washington Post Opinion, Newsweek, The Economist, New York Times, Telegraph, NPR, Scientific American, Science Magazine, Science Podcast, FAZ I, FAZ II, NZZ, Focus, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Time, ...
Moral Machine: The Economist, Washington Post, The New Yorker, BBC, The Guardian, Scientific America, WIRED, Spiegel, Le Monde, ...
Kin networks and Institutional Development: Marginal Revolution, Boston Globe, The American Conservative, Royal Economic Society press release,
Intrinsic Honesty across Societies: The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Science Magazine, Observer, Ars Technica, Spiegel. News and Views by Shaul Shalvi,...
Overconfidence and Career Choice: The Independent, Matt Townsend Show [Interview], Real Clear Science, Vocativ, Bustle, The Boar
Nudging Generosity: Third Sector