Richard McElreath
Director
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
phone: +49 341 3550 301
fax: +49 341 3550 333
e-mail: richard_mcelreath@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
office: level 1, room u1.10
personal web page: http://xcelab.net/rm/
Occasional blog: https://elevanth.org/blog/
Google Scholar profile: scholar.google.com
I am an anthropologist focused on the role of culture in human evolution and adaptation. I also wrote a very popular Bayesian statistics textbook. A major focus of the department is integrating theory with data analysis and study design, and I spend much of my time supporting my colleagues in that way.
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Information
| Address | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Deutscher Platz 6 04103 Leipzig Germany |
| richard_mcelreath@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de | |
| Born | April 18, 1973 in Landstuhl, Germany |
| Citizenship | United States |
Education and Employment
| 2018–present | Honorary Professor of Human Evolutionary Ecology, Leipzig University |
| 2015–present | Director, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig |
| 2014–2018 | Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis |
| 2006–2014 | Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis |
| 2002–2006 | Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis |
| 2001–2002 | Post-doctoral researcher, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin |
| 2001 | Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles |
| 1995 | B.S. Anthropology and Human Biology, Emory University, Atlanta GA |
Professional Activities
| 2014–2015 | Chair, Evolutionary Anthropology, UC Davis |
| 2007–2009 | Strategic Planning Committee, UCD Letters and Science |
| 2007– | Field researcher, AHRC Culture and the Mind project |
| 2006–2012 | Trainer, CLIMB (Collaborative Learning at the Intersection of Math and Biology) undergraduate training program, UC Davis |
| 2006– | Member and PhD advisor, Population Biology Graduate Group, UC Davis |
| 2004– | Chair, Human Ecology Area of Emphasis, Graduate Group in Ecology, UC Davis |
| 2002– | Member, Animal Behavior Graduate Group, UC Davis |
| 2001– | Member, Graduate Group in Ecology, UC Davis |
Software
| GameWeb | A bundle of code for running multi-participant experiments, with process-tracing, based on Mouselab Web. Used in a number of laboratories, as well as in field locations, using handheld computers. |
| rethinking | An R package for conducting custom Bayesian data analysis, using MAP estimation as well as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo. Allows for arbitrarily complex multilevel models. |
| glmer2stan | This R package provides a function, glmer2stan, to build a Stan (mc-stan.org) model from a glmer/glm formula or list of formulas. Available model families are "gaussian", "binomial", "poisson", "gamma", "ordered" (ordered logit), as well as any combinations of these. For example, combining binomial with poisson produces a zero-inflated poisson multilevel model. Computes DIC and WAIC. |
Grants and Awards
| 2015 | NSF grant (co-PI Jeremy Koster) to fund analytical work on foraging lifespan data |
| 2014 | NSF grant to fund collaboration with Dr. Tom Flamson, doing field research in Brazil on the micro-foundations of group formation and cooperation. |
| 2013 | NSF DDIG awarded to PhD student Karl Frost for field research in Canada. |
| 2012 | NSF grant to fund field research with Dr. John Bunce on the formation and maintenance of ethnic boundaries in the Peruvian Amazon. |
| 2010 | NSF post-doctoral research grant, in support of Dr. Kari Schroeder |
| 2009 | NSF grant for pilot ethnographic work in the Faroe Islands, Denmark. |
| 2008 | NSF DDIG awarded to PhD student Timothy Waring for fieldwork in India. |
| 2007 | Elected UCD Chancellor’s Fellow, $25,000 research award. |
| 2005 | Small grant in aid of research, Committee on Research, UC Davis, $2000. |
| 2005 | Studying cultural dynamics in laboratory microsocieties, NSF, ($140,000; Co-PIs Peter J. Richerson and Mark Lubell) |
| 2004 | Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models: Studying cultural evolution in laboratory microsocieties, NSF, ($80,000; Co-PIs Peter J. Richerson and Mark Lubell) |
| 2003 | Junior faculty research improvement grant, $3000. |
| 2002-2005 | NSF grant, “Foundations of human sociality”, supporting ethnographic work ($8500) |
| 2001-2002 | Max Planck Institute post-doctoral fellowship, MPI for Human Development, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Berlin |
| 2000-2001 | Chancellor’s dissertation year fellowship, UCLA |
| 2000 | MacArthur Foundation grant in experimental economics, $19070 |
| 2000 | International Studies and Overseas Programs (Ford Foundation) doctoral research grant, $5000 |
| 1998 | MacArthur Foundation grant for economic field research, $8000 |
| 1996 | Pre-doctoral research grant, International Studies and Overseas Programs (ISOP), UCLA, $6000 |
| 1995 | National Science Foundation pre-doctoral research grant, $5000 |
Past PhD Students and Post-Doctoral Trainees
| Tim Waring | PhD Ecology, focusing on common pool resource management in irrigation systems in Southern India. Now Assistant Professor of Social-Ecological Systems, University of Maine. |
| Adrian Bell | PhD Ecology, focusing on cultural transmission within ongoing Polynesian diaspora. Fieldwork in Tonga. Now Assistant Professor, University of Utah. |
| Bret Beheim | PhD Ecology, focusing on population dynamics and demography of cultural transmission. Regional focus Japan and China. Now post-doctoral researcher at University of New Mexico, Tsimane Health and Life History Project. |
| Kari Britt Schroeder | Post-doctoral trainee, focusing on urban ethnography, survey, and laboratory experiments and biomarkers for cooperation and punishment behavior. Now post-doctoral researcher at Boston University. |
| Matthew Zimmerman | PhD Ecology, focusing on large-scale institutional dynamics and evolutionary ecology. Now post-doctoral scholar at NIMBioS. |
| Ryan Baldini | PhD Ecology, focusing on mathematical life history theory and cultural transmission. Now post-doctoral researcher at Stanford University, working on the evolution and dynamics of human birth weight. |
| John Bunce | Post-doctoral trainee, focusing on dynamics of ethnic identity and cultural variation among Matsigenka of Peruvian Amazon. Now Visiting Assistant Professor at Indiana Bloomington. |
| Paul Smaldino | Post-doctor trainee, focusing on population dynamics of scientific discovery. |
Publications
In press
Bunce, J. A., & McElreath, R. (in press). Ethnicity and cultural dynamics. In R. Kendal, J. Kendal, & J. Tehrani ( |
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McCune, K., McElreath, R., & Logan, C. J. (in press). Investigating the use of learning mechanisms in a species that is rapidly expanding its geographic range (In principle acceptance by PCI Ecology of the version on 11 Oct 2019). Peer Community in Ecology, 100032. |
Open Access2025
Ross, C., Fikes, T., Lenfesty, H., & McElreath, R. (2025). IPDToolkit: An R package for simulation and Bayesian analysis of iterated prisoner’s dilemma game-play under third-party arbitration. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 11: 101204. |
2024
Fedorova, N., Kandler, A., & McElreath, R. (2024). Strategic housing decisions and the evolution of urban settlements: optimality modelling and empirical application in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Royal Society Open Science, 11(10): 241415. |
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Miu, E., Rendell, L., Bowles, S., Boyd, R., Cownden, D., Enquist, M., Eriksson, K., Feldman, M. W., Lillicrap, T., McElreath, R., Murray, S., Ounsley, J., & Lala, K. N. (2024). The refinement paradox and cumulative cultural evolution: Complex products of collective improvement favor conformist outcomes, blind copying, and hyper-credulity. PLoS Computational Biology, 20(9): e1012436. |
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Ross, C., McElreath, R., & Redhead, D. (2024). Modelling animal network data in R using STRAND. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93(3), 254-266. |
2023
Pretelli, I., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Makame Khamis, B., & McElreath, R. (2023). Foraging efficiency and the importance of knowledge in Pemba, Tanzania: Implications for childhood evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 290(2011): 20231505. |
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Gräßle, T., Crockford, C., Eichner, C., Girard-Buttoz, C., Jäger, C., Kirilina, E., Lipp, I., Düx, A., Edwards, L., Jauch, A., Kopp, K. S., Paquette, M., Pine, K., EBC Consortium, Haun, D. B. M., McElreath, R., Anwander, A., Gunz, P., Morawski, M., Friederici, A. D., Weiskopf, N., Leendertz, F. H., & Wittig, R. M. (2023). Sourcing high tissue quality brains from deceased wild primates with known socio‐ecology. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 14(8), 1906 -1924. |
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Spake, R., Bowler, D. E., Callaghan, C. T., Blowes, S. A., Doncaster, C. P., Antão, L. H., Nakagawa, S., McElreath, R., & Chase, J. M. (2023). Understanding ‘it depends’ in ecology: A guide to hypothesising, visualising and interpreting statistical interactions. Biological Reviews, 98(4), 983-1002. |
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De Bacco, C., Contisciani, M., Cardoso-Silva, J., Safdari, H., Baptista, D., Lima Borges, G., Sweet, T., Young, J.-G., Koster, J., Ross, C. T., McElreath, R., Redhead, D., & Power, E. A. (2023). Latent network models to account for noisy, multiply-reported social network data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society - Series A: Statistics in Society, 186(3): qnac004, pp. 355-375. |
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Redhead, D., McElreath, R., & Ross, C. T. (2023). Reliable network inference from unreliable data: A tutorial on latent network modeling using STRAND (advance online). Psychological Methods. |
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Brinkmann, L., Baumann, F., Bonnefon, J.-F., Derex, M., Müller, T. F., Nussberger, A.-M., Czaplicka, A., Acerbi, A., Griffiths, T. L., Henrich, J., Leibo, J. Z., McElreath, R., Oudeyer, P.-Y., Stray, J., & Rahwan, I. (2023). Machine culture. Nature Human Behaviour, 7, 1855-1868. |
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Friederici, A. D., Wittig, R. M., Anwander, A., Eichner, C., Gräßle, T., Jäger, C., Kirilina, E., Lipp, I., Düx, A., Edwards, L. J., Girard-Buttoz, C., Jauch, A., Kopp, K. S., Paquette, M., Pine, K. J., Unwin, S., Haun, D. B. M., Leendertz, F. H., McElreath, R., Morawski, M., Gunz, P., Weiskopf, N., Crockford, C., & Consortium, E. (2023). Brain structure and function: a multidisciplinary pipeline to study hominoid brain evolution. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 17: 1299087. |
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Kohrt, F., Smaldino, P. E., McElreath, R., & Schönbrodt, F. (2023). Replication of the natural selection of bad science. Royal Society Open Science, 10(2): 221306. |
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Ross, C., Hooper, P. L., Smith, J. E., Jaeggi, A. V., Smith, E. A., Gavrilets, S., Zohora, F. t., Ziker, J., Xygalatas, D., Wroblewski, E. E., Wood, B. M., Winterhalder, B., Willführ, K. P., Willard, A. K., Walker, K., von Rueden, C., Voland, E., Valeggia, C., Vaitla, B., Urlacher, S., Towner, M., Sum, C.-Y., Sugiyama, L. S., Strier, K. B., Starkweather, K., Major-Smith, D., Shenk, M., Sear, R., Seabright, E., Schacht, R., Scelza, B., Scaggs, S., Salerno, J., Revilla-Minaya, C., Redhead, D., Pusey, A., Purzycki, B. G., Power, E. A., Pisor, A. C., Pettay, J., Perry, S., Page, A. E., Pacheco-Cobos, L., Oths, K., Oh, S.-Y., Nolin, D., Nettle, D., Moya, C., Migliano, A. B., Mertens, K. J., McNamara, R. A., McElreath, R., Mattison, S., Massengill, E., Marlowe, F., Madimenos, F., Macfarlan, S., Lummaa, V., Lizarralde, R., Liu, R., Liebert, M. A., Lew-Levy, S., Leslie, P., Lanning, J., Kramer, K., Koster, J., Kaplan, H. S., Jamsranjav, B., Hurtado, A. M., Hill, K., Hewlett, B., Helle, S., Headland, T., Headland, J., Gurven, M., Grimalda, G., Greaves, R., Golden, C. D., Godoy, I., Gibson, M., Mouden, C. E., Dyble, M., Draper, P., Downey, S., DeMarco, A. L., Davis, H. E., Crabtree, S., Cortez, C., Colleran, H., Cohen, E., Clark, G., Clark, J., Caudell, M. A., Carminito, C. E., Bunce, J. A., Boyette, A. H., Bowles, S., Blumenfield, T., Beheim, B. A., Beckerman, S., Atkinson, Q., Apicella, C., Alam, N., & Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (2023). Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(22): 2220124120. |
2022
Deffner, D., Rohrer, J. M., & McElreath, R. (2022). A causal framework for cross-cultural generalizability. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 5: 251524592211063. |
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Pretelli, I., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., & McElreath, R. (2022). Rates of ecological knowledge learning in Pemba, Tanzania: Implications for childhood evolution. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 4: e34. |
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Sibilsky, A., Colleran, H., McElreath, R., & Haun, D. B. M. (2022). Expanding the understanding of majority-bias in children’s social learning. Scientific Reports, 12: 6723. |
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Deffner, D., & McElreath, R. (2022). When does selection favor learning from the old? Social Learning in age-structured populations. PLoS One, 17(4): e0267204. |
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Bunce, J. A., & McElreath, R. (2022). Ethnicity and cultural dynamics. SocArXiv. |
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Fedorova, N., McElreath, R., & Beheim, B. A. (2022). The complex life course of mobility: Quantitative description of 300,000 residential moves in 1850–1950 Netherlands. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 4: e39. |
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Rohrer, J. M., Schmukle, S. C., & McElreath, R. (2022). The only thing that can stop bad causal inference is good causal inference. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45: e91. |
2021
Minocher, R., Atmaca, S., Bavero, C., McElreath, R., & Beheim, B. A. (2021). Estimating the reproducibility of social learning research published between 1955 and 2018. Royal Society Open Science, 8: 210450. |
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Sibilsky, A., Colleran, H., McElreath, R., & Haun, D. B. M. (2021). Conformity decreases throughout middle childhood among Ni-Vanuatu children: An intracultural comparison. Developmental Psychology, 57(9), 1497-1509. |
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Ross, C. T., Winterhalder, B., & McElreath, R. (2021). Racial disparities in police use of deadly force against unarmed individuals persist after appropriately benchmarking shooting data on violent crime rates. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(3), 323-332. |
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Wood, B. M., Harris, J. A., Raichlen, D. A., Pontzer, H., Sayre, K., Sancilio, A., Berbesque, C., Crittenden, A. N., Mabulla, A., McElreath, R., Cashdan, E., & Jones, J. H. (2021). Gendered movement ecology and landscape use in Hadza hunter-gatherers. Nature Human Behaviour. |
2020
Deffner, D., Kleinow, V., & McElreath, R. (2020). Dynamic social learning in temporally and spatially variable environments. Royal Society Open Science, 7. |
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Koster, J., Mcelreath, R., Hill, K., Yu, D., Shepard, G., Vliet, N. V., Gurven, M., Kaplan, H., Trumble, B., Bird, R. B., Bird, D., Codding, B., Coad, L., Pacheco-Cobos, L., Winterhalder, B., Lupo, K., Schmitt, D., Sillitoe, P., Franzen, M., Alvard, M., Venkataraman, V., Kraft, T., Endicott, K., Beckerman, S., Marks, S. A., Headland, T., Pangau-Adam, M., Siren, A., Kramer, K., Greaves, R., Reyes-García, V., Guèze, M., Duda, R., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Gallois, S., Napitupulu, L., Ellen, R., Ziker, J., Nielsen, M. R., Ready, E., Healey, C., & Ross, C. (2020). The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation. Science Advances, 6(26): eaax9070. |
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Broesch, T., Crittenden, A. N., Beheim, B. A., Blackwell, A. D., Bunce, J. A., Colleran, H., Hagel, K., Kline, M., McElreath, R., Nelson, R. G., Pisor, A. C., Prall, S., Pretelli, I., Purzycki, B., Quinn, E. A., Ross, C., Scelza, B., Starkweather, K. E., Stieglitz, J., & Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (2020). Navigating cross-cultural research: Methodological and ethical considerations. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287: 20201245. |
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Deffner, D., & McElreath, R. (2020). The importance of life history and population regulation for the evolution of social learning. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 375(1803). |
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Scelza, B. A., Prall, S. P., Swinford, N., Gopalan, S., Atkinson, E. G., McElreath, R., Sheehama, J., & Henn, B. M. (2020). High rate of extrapair paternity in a human population demonstrates diversity in human reproductive strategies. Science Advances, 6(8): eaay6195. |
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McElreath, R. (2020). Statistical rethinking: A Bayesian course with examples in R and STAN (2nd ed). Chapman and Hall / CRC. |
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Scelza, B. A., Atkinson, E. G., Prall, S., McElreath, R., Sheehama, J., & Henn, B. M. (2020). The ethics and logistics of field-based genetic paternity studies. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2: e22. |
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Starkweather, K. E., Shenk, M. K., & McElreath, R. (2020). Biological constraints and socioecological influences on women's pursuit of risk and the sexual division of labour. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2: e59. |
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Trimmer, P. C., McElreath, R., Auster, S., Brown, G. D. A., Dana, J., Gigerenzer, G., Golman, R., Hilbe, C., Kandler, A., Kareev, Y., Schooler, L. J., & Szech, N. (2020). The zoo of models of deliberate ignorance. In R. Hertwig, & C. Engel ( |
2019
Scelza, B. A., Prall, S. P., Blumenfield, T., Crittenden, A. N., Gurven, M., Kline, M., Koster, J., Kushnick, G., Mattison, S. M., Pillsworth, E., Shenk, M. K., Starkweather, K., Stieglitz, J., Sum, C.-Y., Yamaguchi, K., & McElreath, R. (2019). Patterns of paternal investment predict cross-cultural variation in jealous response. Nature Human Behaviour. |
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Perry, A. C., Krakauer, A. H., McElreath, R., Harris, D. J., & Patricelli, G. L. (2019). Hidden Markov models reveal tactical adjustment of temporally clustered courtship displays in response to the behaviors of a robotic female. The American Naturalist, 194(1), 1-16. |
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Trimmer, P. C., Barrett, B. J., McElreath, R., & Sih, A. (2019). Rapid environmental change in games: Complications and counter-intuitive outcomes. Scientific Reports, 9: 7373. |
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Rahwan, I., Cebrian, M., Obradovich, N., Bongard, J., Bonnefon, J.-F., Breazeal, C., Crandall, J. W., Christakis, N. A., Couzin, I. D., Jackson, M. O., Jennings, N. R., Kamar, E., Kloumann, I. M., Larochelle, H., Lazer, D., McElreath, R., Mislove, A., Parkes, D. C., Pentland, A. S., Roberts, M. E., Shariff, A., Tenenbaum, J. B., & Wellman, M. (2019). Machine behaviour. Nature, 568(7753), 477-486. |
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Koster, J., & McElreath, R. (2019). The life history of hunting skill: Cross-cultural and individual variation. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 168(S68), 130-130. |
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Scelza, B., Prall, S., Swinford, N., Gopalan, S., Atkinson, E., McElreath, R., Sheehama, J., & Henn, B. (2019). Husband, lover, pater, genitor: Concurrency and paternity in Himba pastoralists. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 168(S68), 218-218. |
2018
Chmura, H. E., Krause, J. S., Perez, J. H., Asmus, A., Sweet, S. K., Hunt, K. E., Meddle, S. L., McElreath, R., Boelman, N. T., Gough, L., & Wingfield, J. C. (2018). Late-season snowfall is associated with decreased offspring survival in two migratory arctic-breeding songbird species. Journal of Avian Biology, 49(9): e01712. |
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Purzycki, B. G., Pisor, A. C., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Cohen, E., Henrich, J., McElreath, R., McNamara, R. A., Norenzayan, A., Willard, A. K., & Xygalatas, D. (2018). The cognitive and cultural foundations of moral behavior. Evolution and Human Behavior, 39(5), 490-501. |
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McElreath, M. B., Boesch, C., Kühl, H. S., & McElreath, R. (2018). Complex dynamics from simple cognition: The primary ratchet effect in animal culture. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 12(3), 191-202. |
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Ross, C., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Oh, S.-Y., Bowles, S., Beheim, B. A., Bunce, J. A., Caudell, M., Clark, G., Colleran, H., Cortez, C., Draper, P., Greaves, R. D., Gurven, M., Headland, T., Headland, J., Hill, K., Hewlett, B., Kaplan, H. S., Koster, J., Kramer, K., Marlowe, F., McElreath, R., Nolin, D., Quinlan, M., Quinlan, R., Revilla-Minaya, C., Scelza, B., Schacht, R., Shenk, M., Uehara, R., Voland, E., Willführ, K., Winterhalder, B., & Ziker, J. (2018). Greater wealth inequality, less polygyny: Rethinking the polygyny threshold model. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 15(144): 20180035. |
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McElreath, R. (2018). Sizing up human brain evolution. Nature, 557(7706), 496-497. |
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Smaldino, P. E., Flamson, T. J., & McElreath, R. (2018). The evolution of covert signaling. Scientific Reports, 8: 4905. |
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Bunce, J. A., & McElreath, R. (2018). Sustainability of minority culture when inter-ethnic interaction is profitable. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(3), 205-212. |
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Ross, C. T., Winterhalder, B., & McElreath, R. (2018). Resolution of apparent paradoxes in the race-specific frequency of use-of-force by police. Palgrave Communications, 4(1): 61. Retrieved from 10.1057/s41599-018-0110-z. |
2017
Bunce, J. A., & McElreath, R. (2017). Interethnic interaction, strategic bargaining power, and the dynamics of cultural norms: A field study in an Amazonian population. Human Nature, 28(4), 434-456. |
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Johnston, M. E., Kelly, J. T., Lindvall, M. E., McElreath, R., & Klimley, A. P. (2017). Experimental evaluation of the use of vision and barbels as references for rheotaxis in green sturgeon. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 496(Supplement C), 9-15. |
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Koster, J., & McElreath, R. (2017). Multinomial analysis of behavior: Statistical methods. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 71(9): 138. |
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Barrett, B. J., McElreath, R., & Perry, S. E. (2017). Pay-off-biased social learning underlies the diffusion of novel extractive foraging traditions in a wild primate. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1856): 20170358. |
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Aplin, L. M., Sheldon, B. C., & McElreath, R. (2017). Conformity does not perpetuate suboptimal traditions in a wild population of songbirds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(30), 7830-7837. |
2016
Smaldino, P. E., & McElreath, R. (2016). The natural selection of bad science. Royal Society Open Science, 3(9): 160384. |
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Bauch, C. T., & McElreath, R. (2016). Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy. Nature Communications, 7: 11219. |
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Durand, J., Fleenor, W., McElreath, R., Santos, M. J., & Moyle, P. (2016). Physical controls on the distribution of the submersed aquatic weed egeria densa in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and implications for habitat restoration. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science, 14(1): 4. |
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Weinersmith, K. L., Hanninen, A. F., Sih, A., McElreath, R., & Early, R. L. (2016). The relationship between handling time and cortisol release rates changes as a function of brain parasite densities in California killifish Fundulus parvipinnis. Journal of Fish Biology, 88(3), 1125-1142. |
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McElreath, R. (2016). Statistical rethinking: A bayesian course with examples in R and Stan. Boca Raton: CRC Press. |
2015
Bunce, J. A., & McElreath, R. (2015). Cross-cultural perceptions of norm distributions at an Amazonian ethnic boundary: Causes and consequences of cultural dynamics. Talk presented at Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Denver, CO. 2015-11-17 - 2015-11-22. |
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McElreath, R., & Smaldino, P. E. (2015). Replication, communication, and the population dynamics of scientific discovery. PLoS One, 10(8): e0136088. |
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Arsnoe, I. M., Hickling, G. J., Ginsberg, H. S., McElreath, R., & Tsao, J. I. (2015). Different populations of blacklegged tick nymphs exhibit differences in questing behavior that have implications for human lyme disease risk. PLoS One, 10(5): e0127450. |
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Stevens, N. E., & McElreath, R. (2015). When are two tools better than one? Mortars, millingslabs, and the California acorn economy. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 37, 100-111. |
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Beheim, B. A., Ross, C., Thigpen, C., & McElreath, R. (2015). Cultural evolution in games of chess and go. Talk presented at Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological association. Denver, CO. 2015-11-17 - 2015-11-22. |
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Wallin, A., & McElreath, R. (2015). Strategies for advice taking: The role of epistemic social information. Economics and Philosophy, 31, 67-91. |
2014
Bunce, J. A., & McElreath, R. (2014). Ethnic boundaries, norms, and cultural change in an Amazonian population. Talk presented at Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, DC. 2014-12-02 - 2014-12-07. |
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Beheim, B. A., Thigpen, C., & McElreath, R. (2014). Strategic social learning and the population dynamics of human behavior: The game of Go. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35(5), 351-357. |
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McElreath, R., & Koster, J. (2014). Using multilevel models to estimate variation in foraging returns effects of failure rate, harvest size, age, and individual heterogeneity. Human Nature, 25(1), 100-120. |
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Beheim, B. A., Thigpen, C., & McElreath, R. (2014). Evolutionary dynamics in the game of Go. Talk presented at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics. University of California, Los Angeles. |
2013
House, B. R., Silk, J. B., Henrich, J., Barrett, H. C., Scelza, B. A., Boyette, A. H., Hewlett, B. S., McElreath, R., & Laurence, S. (2013). Ontogeny of prosocial behavior across diverse societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(36), 14586-14591. |
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Smaldino, P. E., Schank, J. C., & McElreath, R. (2013). Increased costs of cooperation help cooperators in the long run. The American Naturalist, 181(4), 451-463. |
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Schroeder, K. B., McElreath, R., & Nettle, D. (2013). Variants at serotonin transporter and 2A receptor genes predict cooperative behavior differentially according to presence of punishment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(10), 3955-3960. |
2012
Iglesias, T., McElreath, R., & Patricelli, G. (2012). Western scrub-jay funerals: Cacophonous aggregations in response to dead conspecifics. Animal Behaviour, 84(5), 1103-1111. |
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Baum, W. M., Paciotti, B., Richerson, P., Lubell, M., & McElreath, R. (2012). Cooperation due to cultural norms, not individual reputation. Behavioural Processes, 91(1), 90-93. |
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Dawes, C. T., Loewen, P. J., Schreiber, D., Simmons, A. N., Flagan, T., McElreath, R., Bokemper, S. E., Fowler, J. H., & Paulus, M. P. (2012). Neural basis of egalitarian behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(17), 6479-6483. |
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Henrich, J., Boyd, R., McElreath, R., Gurven, M., Richerson, P. J., Ensminger, J., Alvard, M., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Camerer, C. F., Cardenas, J.-C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H. M., Gil-White, F., Gwako, E. L., Henrich, N., Hill, K., Lesorogol, C., Patton, J. Q., Marlowe, F. W., Tracer, D. P., & Ziker, a. J. (2012). Culture does account for variation in game behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(2), E32-E33. |
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McElreath, R., Wallin, A., & Fasolo, B. (2012). The evolutionary rationality of social learning. In R. Hertwig, U. Hoffrage, & ABC Research Group ( |
2011
Cordes, C., Richerson, P., McElreath, R., & Strimling, P. (2011). How does opportunistic behavior influence firm size? An evolutionary approach to organizational behavior. Journal of Institutional Economics, 7(1), 1-21. |
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Paciotti, B., Richerson, P., Baum, B., Lubell, M., Waring, T., McElreath, R., Efferson, C., & Edsten, E. (2011). Are religious individuals more generous, trusting, and cooperative? An experimental test of the effect of religion on prosociality. In L. Obadia, & D. C. Wood ( |
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Patricelli, G. L., Krakauer, A. H., & McElreath, R. (2011). Assets and tactics in a mating market: Economic models of negotiation offer insights into animal courtship dynamics on the lek. Current Zoology, 57(2), 225-236. Retrieved from http://www.currentzoology.org/paperdetail.asp?id=11836. |
2010
Henrich, J., Ensminger, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D., & Ziker, J. (2010). Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment. Science, 327(5972), 1480-1484. |
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Mulder, M. B., Fazzio, I., Irons, W., McElreath, R., Bowles, S., Bell, A., Hertz, T., & Hazzah, a. L. (2010). Pastoralism and wealth inequality: Revisiting an old question [Intergenerational Wealth Transmission and Inequality in Premodern Societies]. Current Anthropology, 51(1), 35-48. |
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Sih, A., Stamps, J., Yang, L. H., McElreath, R., & Ramenofsky, M. (2010). Behavior as a key component of integrative biology in a human-altered world. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 50(6), 934-944. |
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Smirnov, O., Dawes, C. T., Fowler, J. H., Johnson, T., & McElreath, R. (2010). The behavioral logic of collective action: Partisans cooperate and punish more than nonpartisans. Political Psychology, 31(4), 595-616. |
2009
McElreath, R. (2009). Linking the micro and macro in cultural evolution [Review of "Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution" by Stephen Shennan (Ed.)]. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 24(11), 588-589. |
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Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Bowles, S., Hertz, T., Bell, A., Beise, J., Clark, G., Fazzio, I., Gurven, M., Hill, K., Hooper, P. L., Irons, W., Kaplan, H., Leonetti, D., Low, B., Marlowe, F., McElreath, R., Naidu, S., Nolin, D., Piraino, P., Quinlan, R., Schniter, E., Sear, R., Shenk, M., Smith, E. A., von Rueden, C., & Wiessner, P. (2009). Intergenerational wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies. Science, 326(5953), 682-688. |
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McElreath, R. (2009). The coevolution of genes, innovation, and culture in human evolution. In P. M. Kappeler, & J. Silk ( |
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McEachern, M., McElreath, R., Van Vuren, D. H., & Eadie, J. M. (2009). Another genetically promiscuous ‘polygynous’ mammal: Mating system variation in Neotoma fuscipes. Animal Behaviour, 77(2), 449-455. |
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Bell, A. V., Richerson, P. J., & McElreath, R. (2009). Culture rather than genes provides greater scope for the evolution of large-scale human prosociality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(42), 17671-17674. |
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Johnson, T., Dawes, C. T., Fowler, J. H., McElreath, R., & Smirnov, O. (2009). The role of egalitarian motives in altruistic punishment. Economics Letters, 102(3), 192-194. |
2008
McElreath, R., Bell, A. V., Efferson, C., Lubell, M., Richerson, P. J., & Waring, T. (2008). Beyond existence and aiming outside the laboratory: Estimating frequency-dependent and pay-off-biased social learning strategies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 363(1509), 3515-3528. |
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Cordes, C., Richerson, P. J., McElreath, R., & Strimling, P. (2008). A naturalistic approach to the theory of the firm: The role of cooperation and cultural evolution. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 68(1), 125-139. |
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McElreath, R., & Strimling, P. (2008). When natural selection favors imitation of parents. Current Anthropology, 49(2), 307-316. |
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Marlowe, F. W., Berbesque, J. C., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Ensminger, J., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Henrich, J., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., McElreath, R., & Tracer, D. (2008). More ‘altruistic’ punishment in larger societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1634), 587-590. |
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Efferson, C., Lalive, R., Richerson, P. J., McElreath, R., & Lubell, M. (2008). Conformists and mavericks: The empirics of frequency-dependent cultural transmission. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29(1), 56-64. |
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McElreath, R., Boyd, R., Gigerenzer, G., Glöckner, A., Hammerstein, P., Kurzban, R., Magen, S., Richerson, P. J., Robson, A., & Stevens, J. R. (2008). Individual decision making and the evolutionary roots of institutions. In C. Engel, & W. Singer ( |
2007
Efferson, C., Takezawa, M., & McElreath, R. (2007). New methods in quantitative ethnography: Economic experiments and variation in the price of equality. Current Anthropology, 48(6), 912-919. |
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McElreath, R., Luttbeg, B., Fogarty, S. P., & Sih, T. B. A. (2007). Evolution of animal personalities. Nature, 450, E5-E6. |
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Dawes, C. T., Fowler, J. H., Johnson, T., McElreath, R., & Smirnov, O. (2007). Egalitarian motives in humans. Nature, 446, 794-796. |
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Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2007). Dual-inheritance theory: The evolution of human cultural capacities and cultural evolution. In L. Barrett, & R. Dunbar ( |
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McElreath, R., & Henrich, J. (2007). Modelling cultural evolution. In L. Barrett, & R. Dunbar ( |
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McElreath, R., & Boyd, R. (2007). Mathematical models of social evolution: A guide for the perplexed. Chicago: The Univ. of Chicago Pr. |
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Efferson, C., Richerson, P. J., McElreath, R., Lubell, M., Edsten, E., Waring, T. M., Paciotti, B., & Baum, W. (2007). Learning, productivity, and noise: An experimental study of cultural transmission on the Bolivian Altiplano. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28(1), 11-17. |
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Newson, L., Postmes, T., Lea, S., Webley, P., Richerson, P. J., & McElreath, R. (2007). Influences on communication about reproduction: The cultural evolution of low fertility. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28(3), 199-210. |
2006
McElreath, R., & Strimling, P. (2006). How noisy information and individual asymmetries can make ‘personality’ an adaptation: A simple model. Animal Behaviour, 72(5), 1135-1139. |
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Henrich, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Ensminger, J., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D., & Ziker, J. (2006). Costly punishment across human societies. Science, 312(5781), 1767-1770. |
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Bettinger, R. L., Winterhalder, B., & McElreath, R. (2006). A simple model of technological intensification. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33(4), 538-545. |
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Eerkens, J. W., Bettinger, R. L., & McElreath, R. (2006). Cultural transmission, phylogenetics, and the archaeological record. In C. P. Lipo, M. J. O'Brien, M. Collard, & S. J. Shennan ( |
2005
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., McElreath, R., Alvard, M., Barr, A., Ensminger, J., Henrich, N. S., Hill, K., Gil-White, F., Gurven, M., Marlowe, F. W., Patton, J. Q., & Tracer, D. (2005). “Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(6), 795-815. |
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McElreath, R. (2005). Perspectives on Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed [CA Forum on Anthropology in Public]. Current Anthropology, 46(S5), S96-S97. |
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McElreath, R., Lubell, M., Richerson, P. J., Waring, T. M., Baum, W., Edsten, E., Efferson, C., & Paciotti, B. (2005). Applying evolutionary models to the laboratory study of social learning. Evolution and Human Behavior, 26(6), 483-508. |
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Stamps, J., McElreath, R., & Eason, P. (2005). Alternative models of conspecific attraction in flies and crabs. Behavioral Ecology, 16(6), 974-980. |
2004
McElreath, R. (2004). Social learning and the maintenance of cultural variation: An evolutionary model and data from East Africa. American Anthropologist, 106(2), 308-321. |
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Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C. F., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., & McElreath, R. (2004). Overview and synthesis. In Foundations of human sociality (pp. 8-54). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford University Pr. |
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McElreath, R. (2004). Community structure, mobility, and the strength of norms in an African society: The Sangu of Tanzania. In Foundations of human sociality (pp. 335-355). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford University Pr. |
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McElreath, R., & Camerer, C. (2004). Appendix: Estimating risk-aversion from ultimatum game data. In J. Henrich, R. Boyd, S. Bowles, C. Camerer, E. Fehr, & H. Gintis ( |
2003
Gigerenzer, G., & McElreath, R. (2003). [Comment] Social intelligence in games. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 159(1), 188-194. Retrieved from http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/resolveppn/?PID=PPN34561688X_0159|log24. |
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Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2003). The evolution of cultural evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology, 12(3), 123-135. |
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McElreath, R. (2003). Reputation and the evolution of conflict. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 220(3), 345-357. |
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McElreath, R., & Boyd, R. (2003). Shared norms and the evolution of ethnic markers. Current Anthropology, 44(1), 122-129. |
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McElreath, R., Clutton-Brock, T. H., Fehr, E., Fessler, D. M. T., Hagen, E. H., Hammerstein, P., Kosfeld, M., Milinski, M., Silk, J. B., Tooby, J., & Wilson, M. I. (2003). Group report: The role of cognition and emotion in cooperation. In P. Hammerstein ( |
2002
Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2002). [Reply]: On risk‐prone peasants: Cultural transmission or Sigmoid utility maximization? Current Anthropology, 43(5), 787-789. |
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Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2002). Are peasants risk-averse decision makers? Current Anthropology, 43(1), 172-181. |
2001
Soltis, J., & McElreath, R. (2001). Can females gain extra paternal investment by mating with multiple males? A game theoretic approach. The American Naturalist, 158(5), 519-529. |
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Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., & McElreath, R. (2001). In search of homo economicus: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. The American economic review, 91(2), 73-78. |