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Social Origins Lab - UC Berkeley
Welcome to 
We study human cognition and behavior from an evolutionary perspective. We are particularly interested in the evolutionary and developmental roots of human sociality. Most of what makes humans such unusual primates has to do, in one way or another, with our especially social and cultural lifestyles, which result in cooperative forms of thinking and acting. We address questions about the evolution and development of socio-cognitive skills by comparing humans to other animals (mostly chimpanzees, our closest living relatives) and by studying how children develop in different societies.
The Social Origins Lab values diversity both in the workplace and in our research. We are committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment as well as enriching learning opportunities to all lab members, including those from marginalized and historically underrepresented backgrounds. We encourage applications from students who identify as members of marginalized or historically underrepresented backgrounds. Furthermore, we are actively engaging with programs (such as the Research Experience Pathways program, the Cal NERDS<span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
<span itemprop="name">Cal NERDS</span>
</span> program, and the Learning-Aligned Employment Program) that provide paid opportunities to such students. In our research, we prioritize recruiting participants that represent the Bay Area community<span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
<span itemprop="name">Bay Area community</span>
</span> for US samples. We conduct cross-cultural research with longstanding collaborators in China and Kenya to study social and cognitive development in different populations.
Latest News
Jan discusses our work on NPR's On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti !
Location
University of California<span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
<span itemprop="name">University of California</span>
</span>, Berkeley
2121 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
Recent Publications
Engelmann, J.M., Völter, C.J., Goddu, M., Call, J., Rakoczy, H. & Herrmann, E. (2023). Chimpanzees prepare for alternative possible outcomes. Biology Letters
Confer, J., Schleihauf, H., Engelmann, J.M. (2023). Children and adults' intuitions of what people can believe. Child Development.