#174 Michael Muthukrishna: Human Culture, The Cultural Brain, And Political Corruption
Dr. Michael Muthukrishna is an Assistant Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics. His other affiliations include Research Associate of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, Affiliate of the Developmental Economics Group at STICERD, and Technical Director of The Database of Religious History. His research focuses on the psychological and evolutionary processes that underlie culture and how culture is transmitted, maintained, and modified. He’s interested in better understanding the dynamic relationship between “cultures” and individuals, where cultures emerge from the interactions of individuals over time, who are in turn shaped by the emergent cultures they constitute. He’s particularly interested in the application of research in cultural evolution to public policy.
In this episode, we first talk about the interplay between biology and culture in explaining large-scale human cooperation, and the biological bases of human culture. We then refer to the Cultural Brain Hypothesis, the relationship between individual-level psychology and group-level traits, genetic and cultural evolution, and contentious topic of group selection. Finally, we talk about prosocial institutions, and political corruption and how societies might promote it and also common strategies to fight it that might backfire.
Time Links:
The aspects of psychology economics is most interested in
Large-scale human cooperation, biology and culture
Human culture, and cumulative culture
The Cultural Brain Hypothesis
The interplay between individual-level psychology and group-level traits
Genetic and cultural evolution
About group selection
The role that social institutions play in human societies
What is political corruption?
Social factors that promote political corruption
Anti-corruption measures that might backfire
Follow Dr. Muthukrishna’s work!
Follow Dr. Muthukrishna’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2JrvYoU
Articles of Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2XvyygB
Twitter handle: @mmuthukrishna
Referenced papers/concepts/books:
The Baldwin Effect: https://bit.ly/2Hy1krY
Cultural Evolution: https://bit.ly/2FkrdIh
The Secret of Our Success (Joe Henrich): https://amzn.to/2OiZWtP
A Different Kind of Animal (Rob Boyd): https://amzn.to/2FpsdMy
Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony (Kevin Laland): https://amzn.to/2Frhm50
This View of Life (David S. Wilson): https://amzn.to/2HHVjs9