The Department of Psychology is delighted to announce the next online talk of the Mind Meeting Seminar Series.
On Thursday 7th April 2022, 11 am CET, Professor Daniel Haun (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) will give a talk entitled “Comparative Cultural Psychology – evolving a research program”.
The talk will take place virtually via Zoom. Please contact us at psy-office@cbs.mpg.de if you are interested in taking part.
Abstract
One of the most striking characteristics of human behavior in contrast to all other animal is that we show extraordinary variability across populations. Human cultural diversity is a biological oddity. More specifically, I propose that what makes humans unique is the nature of the individual ontogenetic process, that, amongst other things, results in this unparalleled cultural diversity. Hence, our central question is: How is human ontogeny adapted to cultural diversity and how does it contribute to it? This question is critical, because cultural diversity does not only entail our predominant mode of adaptation to local ecologies, but is key in the construction of our cognitive architecture. The colors we see, the tones that we hear, the memories we form, are all the consequence of an interaction between our emerging cognitive system and our lived experiences. I will present several ongoing research- and methods development projects that combine developmental, cross-cultural and comparative studies, aiming to develop an integrative account of uniquely human cultural diversity and its universal developmental roots.
