Minhua Yan

I am an evolutionary social scientist broadly interested in cooperation and cultural evolution in humans and other animals. I received my Ph.D. from Arizona State University in August, 2023. My recent work has been focusing on norm operation mechanisms and norm evolution dynamics. Specially, I am investigating 1) how norms direct individual behaviors through culturally acquired preference, socially constructed payoff structure and biased strategy transmission, and 2) how selective, demographic and cognitive forces impact whether a norm changes, how fast it changes, and which equilibrium it lands on. To address these questions, I construct mathematical models and conduct in-depth interviews and economic games in both subsistence and industralized societies.