Joseph Henrich

Joseph Henrich is Professor and Chair of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. His research focuses on evolutionary approaches to psychology, decision-making, and culture, and includes topics related to cultural learning, cultural evolution, culture-gene coevolution, human sociality, prestige, leadership, large-scale cooperation, religion and the emergence of complex human institutions. Methodologically, he integrates ethnographic tools from anthropology with experimental techniques drawn from psychology and economics. His area interests include Amazonia, Chile, and Fiji. He has written more than a hundred articles for the peer-reviewed scientific literature and his popular press books include Why Humans Cooperate (2007) and The Secret of Our Success (2016). His latest book is The WEIRDest People in the World: How Westerners Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous (2020).