Alejandra Ramírez

Culture emerges from decisions.

My research investigates how local decisions combine to produce the large-scale patterns of norms, cooperation, and cultural change that shape human societies.

Working at the intersection of theoretical modelling, cultural evolution, and complex systems, I develop formal models that connect individual decision-making to collective cultural dynamics. Using tools from mathematics, economics, and complexity science, I study how simple behavioural rules give rise to complex cultural systems.

Interdisciplinary Perspective

My research is inherently interdisciplinary, bridging:

• Mathematics
• Economics
• Behavioural science
• Anthropology
• Complex systems science

I combine methods from game theory, dynamical systems, computer science, and evolutionary biology to study how behaviours spread, stabilise, or transform under different social and institutional conditions.

Previous Work

I completed my PhD in mathematics at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, where I focused on cooperation and strategic interaction in complex systems.

During this work, I explored how factors such as behavioural heterogeneity, randomness, and nonlinear dynamics influence collective outcomes.

My research spans phenomena such as social dilemmas, price competition and decentralised economic systems (including blockchain). A central finding across these areas is that small differences in individual incentives or behaviour can produce large-scale effects in collective dynamics.

Current Affiliation

I am affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the BirthRites research group led by Dr. Heidi Colleran, where I collaborate with researchers studying human behaviour, cooperation, and cultural dynamics.

Currently, I am working on the ERC-funded project "Multilingual worlds – neglected histories. Uncovering their emergence, continuity and loss in past and present societies" (MULTILING-HIST), led by Principal Investigator Prof. Justyna Olko at the University of Warsaw.

I welcome opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion with scholars interested in theoretical modelling, cultural evolution, cooperation and social dilemmas, and quantitative approaches to social systems.