Postdoctoral Research Fellow Religion Programme University of Otago theo.samore@gmail.com
I approach the human mind from an evolutionary perspective, taking seriously the interactive effects of both biological and cultural evolution. My research thus sits at the intersection of evolutionary anthropology, political psychology, and cross-cultural psychology. I investigate why people vary in the extent to which they endorse traditional norms, religious practices, and political values, particularly as a response to the perception of threats in the world; relatedly, I examine how threat sensitivity influences the acquisition of cultural information. Given the important role that cultural evolution plays in putatively connecting traditionalism with perceptions of both threats as well as competing priorities, I explore these dynamics across a range of cultural contexts.
Currently, I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Otago, where I am researching the effects of religiosity on cooperation and alloparenting.
