
Scholar Profile
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Papers
Yan, M., Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2023. "Doing what others do" does not stabilize continuous norms. PNAS Nexus 2(3): pgad054 https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad054. Open access link to paper.
Mathew, S. 2022. Turkana warriors’ call to arms: how an egalitarian society mobilizes for cattle raids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B. 377 (1851) 20210144.
Taravella Oill, A.M., Handley, C., Howell, E. K., Stone, A. C., Mathew, S., Wilson, M. A. 2022. Genomic analysis reveals geography rather than culture as the predominant factor shaping genetic variation in northern Kenyan human populations. American Journal of Biological Anthropology https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24521
Zefferman, M. and Mathew, S. 2021. Combat stress in a small-scale society suggests divergent evolutionary roots for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118:15 e2020430118. Open access link to paper. Summaries in ASU News and my twitter thread. Coverage in The Guardian by Manvir Singh, and in Knowable Magazine by Sharon Levy.
Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2021. Arbitration supports reciprocity when there are frequent perception errors. Nature Human Behavior. Open access view link. Summaries in ASU News and my twitter thread; Commentary by Arunas Radzvilavicius in Psychology Today.
Zefferman, M. and Mathew, S. An evolutionary theory of moral injury with insights from Turkana warriors. Evolution and Human Behavior 41(5): 341-353 (2020). Open access link to paper.
Handley, C. and Mathew, S. Human large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups. Nature Communications 11, 702 (2020). Open Access. (PDF and link to paper). See press release by ASU and commentaries in This View of Life and Christian Science Monitor and New Scientist.
Baimel, A., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Henrich, J., Klocová, E.K., Lang, M., Lesogorol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, R., Moya, C., Norenzayan, A., Placek, C. D., Soler, M., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Willard, A., Xygalatas, D., Purzycki, B. 2022. Material insecurity predicts greater commitment to moralistic and less commitment to local deities: a cross-cultural investigation. Religion, Brain & Behavior 12(1-2): 4-17.
Vardy, T., Moya, C., Placek C.D, Apicella, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Klocová E.K., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, S. A., Purzycki, B. G., Soler, M., Weigel, J. L., Willard, A. K., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A., Henrich, J., Lang, M., Atkinson Q. D. 2022. The religiosity gender gap in 14 diverse societies. Religion, Brain & Behavior 12 (1-2): 18-37.
Lang, M., Purzycki, B., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Colleran, H., Curtis, R., Handley, C., Klocova, E., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., Moya, C., Placek, C., Soler, M., Stagnaro, N., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A. and Henrich, J. 2019. Moralizing gods, impartiality and religious parochialism across 15 societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B 286 (1898): 20190202 (PDF and link to paper)
Ghrear S. E., Chudek M., Flung K., Mathew, S., and Birch, S. A. J. 2019. Cultural Variations in the Curse of Knowledge: the Curse of Knowledge Bias in Children from a Nomadic Pastoralist Culture. Journal of Cognition and Culture 9 (3-4): 366-384 (PDF and link to paper)
Mathew, S. 2017. How the second-order free rider problem is solved in a small-scale society. American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings. Vol 107 (5): 578-81 (PDF and link to paper)
Mathew S. and Perreault C. 2016. Cultural history, not ecological environment, is the main determinant of human behavior. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 283: 1826 (PDF & link to paper)
Richerson, P., Baldini, R., Bell, A., Demps, K., Frost, K., Hillis, V., Mathew, S., Newton, E., Narr, N., Newson, L., Ross, C., Smaldino, P., Waring, T., Zefferman, M. 2016. Cultural group selection follows Darwin's classic syllogism for the operation of selection. Behavior and Brain Sciences 39, e58 (PDF & link to paper)
Richerson P. J., Baldini R., Bell A., Demps K., Frost K., Hillis V., Mathew S., Newton E., Narr N., Newson L., Ross C., Smaldino P., Waring T. and Zefferman M. 2016. Cultural Group Selection Plays an Essential Role in Explaining Human Cooperation: A Sketch of the Evidence. Behavior and Brain Sciences, 39, e30. (PDF & link to paper)
Boyd R. and Mathew S. 2015. Third-party monitoring and sanctions aid the evolution of language. Evolution and Human Behavior 36 (6): 475-9 (PDF & link to paper)
Mathew S. and Perreault C. 2015. Behavioral variation in 172 small-scale societies indicates social learning to be the main mode of human adaptation. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 282: 20150061. (PDF & link to paper). Press release by ASU and SFI
Zefferman M., Baldini R. and Mathew S. 2015. Solving the puzzle of human warfare requires an explanation of battle raids and cultural institutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112( 20): E2557. PDF
Zefferman, M. and Mathew S. 2015. An Evolutionary Theory of Large-scale Human Warfare: Group-structured Cultural Selection. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News and Reviews 24 (2): 50-61. (PDF & link to paper)
Mathew, S. 2015. Are Cultural and Evolutionary Views of Human Warfare Converging? A Review of “War, Peace and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views, edited by Douglas P. Fry (Oxford University Press, 2015)”. Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution 6 (1). link to article. See also Peter Turchin's related discussion.
Mathew, S. 2015. The evolution of human cooperation. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd edition 11: 259-266. PDF
Mathew, S and Boyd R. 2014 The cost of cowardice: punitive sentiments towards free riders in Turkana raids. Evolution and Human Behavior 35: 58-64. (PDF & link to paper)
Panchanathan, K., Mathew, S. and Perreault C. 2014. Explaining group-level traits requires distinguishing process from product. Behavior and Brain Sciences 37 (3): 269-70. DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X13002975. PDF
Mathew, S., Boyd R., and van Veelen M. 2013. Human cooperation among kin and close associates may require enforcement of norms by third parties. In: Cultural Evolution, ed. P. J. Richerson and M. Christiansen. Strüngmann Forum Report 12, series editor J. Lupp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. PDF (see also http://www.esforum.de; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cultural-evolution)
Jordan, F. M., van Schaik C., François P., Gintis H., Haun D. B. M., Hruschka D. J., Janssen M. A., Kitts J. A., Lehmann L., Mathew S., Richerson P. J., Turchin P. and Wiessner P. 2013. Cultural evolution of the structure of human groups. In: Cultural Evolution, ed. P. J. Richerson and M. Christiansen. Strüngmann Forum Report 12, series editor J. Lupp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. PDF
Perreault C. and Mathew S. 2012. Dating the origin of language using phonemic diversity. PLoS One 7(4) e35289.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035289 link to article
Bowles S., Boyd R., Mathew S. and Richerson P. J. 2012. The punishment that sustains cooperation is often coordinated and costly. Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 35 (1): 20-21 PDF
Mathew S. and Boyd R. 2011. Reply to Baumard and Lienard: Mechanistic accounts need to specify why reputation systems yield cooperative outcomes on observed scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (39): E754 PDF
Mathew S. and Boyd R. 2011. Punishment sustains large-scale cooperation in pre-state warfare.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (28): 11375-11380 PDF SI (See commentaries by Richard McElreath, New Scientist, Discover, Physorg, io9)
Mathew, S. and R. Boyd. 2009. When does optional participation allow the evolution of cooperation? Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 276: 1167 - 74 PDF
Boyd R. and Mathew S. 2007. A Narrow Road to Cooperation, Science, 316: 1858 - 59 PDF
Yan, M., Mathew, S. and Boyd, R. 2023. "Doing what others do" does not stabilize continuous norms. PNAS Nexus 2(3): pgad054 https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad054. Open access link to paper.
Mathew, S. 2022. Turkana warriors’ call to arms: how an egalitarian society mobilizes for cattle raids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B. 377 (1851) 20210144.
Taravella Oill, A.M., Handley, C., Howell, E. K., Stone, A. C., Mathew, S., Wilson, M. A. 2022. Genomic analysis reveals geography rather than culture as the predominant factor shaping genetic variation in northern Kenyan human populations. American Journal of Biological Anthropology https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24521
Zefferman, M. and Mathew, S. 2021. Combat stress in a small-scale society suggests divergent evolutionary roots for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118:15 e2020430118. Open access link to paper. Summaries in ASU News and my twitter thread. Coverage in The Guardian by Manvir Singh, and in Knowable Magazine by Sharon Levy.
Boyd, R. and Mathew, S. 2021. Arbitration supports reciprocity when there are frequent perception errors. Nature Human Behavior. Open access view link. Summaries in ASU News and my twitter thread; Commentary by Arunas Radzvilavicius in Psychology Today.
Zefferman, M. and Mathew, S. An evolutionary theory of moral injury with insights from Turkana warriors. Evolution and Human Behavior 41(5): 341-353 (2020). Open access link to paper.
Handley, C. and Mathew, S. Human large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups. Nature Communications 11, 702 (2020). Open Access. (PDF and link to paper). See press release by ASU and commentaries in This View of Life and Christian Science Monitor and New Scientist.
Baimel, A., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Henrich, J., Klocová, E.K., Lang, M., Lesogorol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, R., Moya, C., Norenzayan, A., Placek, C. D., Soler, M., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Willard, A., Xygalatas, D., Purzycki, B. 2022. Material insecurity predicts greater commitment to moralistic and less commitment to local deities: a cross-cultural investigation. Religion, Brain & Behavior 12(1-2): 4-17.
Vardy, T., Moya, C., Placek C.D, Apicella, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Klocová E.K., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, S. A., Purzycki, B. G., Soler, M., Weigel, J. L., Willard, A. K., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A., Henrich, J., Lang, M., Atkinson Q. D. 2022. The religiosity gender gap in 14 diverse societies. Religion, Brain & Behavior 12 (1-2): 18-37.
Lang, M., Purzycki, B., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Colleran, H., Curtis, R., Handley, C., Klocova, E., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., Moya, C., Placek, C., Soler, M., Stagnaro, N., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A. and Henrich, J. 2019. Moralizing gods, impartiality and religious parochialism across 15 societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B 286 (1898): 20190202 (PDF and link to paper)
Ghrear S. E., Chudek M., Flung K., Mathew, S., and Birch, S. A. J. 2019. Cultural Variations in the Curse of Knowledge: the Curse of Knowledge Bias in Children from a Nomadic Pastoralist Culture. Journal of Cognition and Culture 9 (3-4): 366-384 (PDF and link to paper)
Mathew, S. 2017. How the second-order free rider problem is solved in a small-scale society. American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings. Vol 107 (5): 578-81 (PDF and link to paper)
Mathew S. and Perreault C. 2016. Cultural history, not ecological environment, is the main determinant of human behavior. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 283: 1826 (PDF & link to paper)
Richerson, P., Baldini, R., Bell, A., Demps, K., Frost, K., Hillis, V., Mathew, S., Newton, E., Narr, N., Newson, L., Ross, C., Smaldino, P., Waring, T., Zefferman, M. 2016. Cultural group selection follows Darwin's classic syllogism for the operation of selection. Behavior and Brain Sciences 39, e58 (PDF & link to paper)
Richerson P. J., Baldini R., Bell A., Demps K., Frost K., Hillis V., Mathew S., Newton E., Narr N., Newson L., Ross C., Smaldino P., Waring T. and Zefferman M. 2016. Cultural Group Selection Plays an Essential Role in Explaining Human Cooperation: A Sketch of the Evidence. Behavior and Brain Sciences, 39, e30. (PDF & link to paper)
Boyd R. and Mathew S. 2015. Third-party monitoring and sanctions aid the evolution of language. Evolution and Human Behavior 36 (6): 475-9 (PDF & link to paper)
Mathew S. and Perreault C. 2015. Behavioral variation in 172 small-scale societies indicates social learning to be the main mode of human adaptation. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 282: 20150061. (PDF & link to paper). Press release by ASU and SFI
Zefferman M., Baldini R. and Mathew S. 2015. Solving the puzzle of human warfare requires an explanation of battle raids and cultural institutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112( 20): E2557. PDF
Zefferman, M. and Mathew S. 2015. An Evolutionary Theory of Large-scale Human Warfare: Group-structured Cultural Selection. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News and Reviews 24 (2): 50-61. (PDF & link to paper)
Mathew, S. 2015. Are Cultural and Evolutionary Views of Human Warfare Converging? A Review of “War, Peace and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views, edited by Douglas P. Fry (Oxford University Press, 2015)”. Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution 6 (1). link to article. See also Peter Turchin's related discussion.
Mathew, S. 2015. The evolution of human cooperation. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd edition 11: 259-266. PDF
Mathew, S and Boyd R. 2014 The cost of cowardice: punitive sentiments towards free riders in Turkana raids. Evolution and Human Behavior 35: 58-64. (PDF & link to paper)
Panchanathan, K., Mathew, S. and Perreault C. 2014. Explaining group-level traits requires distinguishing process from product. Behavior and Brain Sciences 37 (3): 269-70. DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X13002975. PDF
Mathew, S., Boyd R., and van Veelen M. 2013. Human cooperation among kin and close associates may require enforcement of norms by third parties. In: Cultural Evolution, ed. P. J. Richerson and M. Christiansen. Strüngmann Forum Report 12, series editor J. Lupp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. PDF (see also http://www.esforum.de; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cultural-evolution)
Jordan, F. M., van Schaik C., François P., Gintis H., Haun D. B. M., Hruschka D. J., Janssen M. A., Kitts J. A., Lehmann L., Mathew S., Richerson P. J., Turchin P. and Wiessner P. 2013. Cultural evolution of the structure of human groups. In: Cultural Evolution, ed. P. J. Richerson and M. Christiansen. Strüngmann Forum Report 12, series editor J. Lupp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. PDF
Perreault C. and Mathew S. 2012. Dating the origin of language using phonemic diversity. PLoS One 7(4) e35289.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035289 link to article
Bowles S., Boyd R., Mathew S. and Richerson P. J. 2012. The punishment that sustains cooperation is often coordinated and costly. Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 35 (1): 20-21 PDF
Mathew S. and Boyd R. 2011. Reply to Baumard and Lienard: Mechanistic accounts need to specify why reputation systems yield cooperative outcomes on observed scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (39): E754 PDF
Mathew S. and Boyd R. 2011. Punishment sustains large-scale cooperation in pre-state warfare.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (28): 11375-11380 PDF SI (See commentaries by Richard McElreath, New Scientist, Discover, Physorg, io9)
Mathew, S. and R. Boyd. 2009. When does optional participation allow the evolution of cooperation? Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 276: 1167 - 74 PDF
Boyd R. and Mathew S. 2007. A Narrow Road to Cooperation, Science, 316: 1858 - 59 PDF