315: Nichola Raihani | Cooperation As A Key Element Of Human Evolution In “The Social Instinct”

What causes cooperation when there is potential to exploit? Why is cooperation commonplace in nature, when there is clear benefit from selfish behavior. Examining humans and non-human animals, Professor Nichola Raihani of University College London explores this topic in The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World, and joins us on episode 315 of the show.

Dr. Nichola Raihani is a British psychologist who is a Professor of Evolution and Behaviour at University College London. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (Natural Sciences) at Girton College in the University of Cambridge in 2003. She stayed at Cambridge for her graduate studies, where she studied cooperation in pied babblers in the Kalahari Desert.

Her doctoral research was supervised by Tim Clutton-Brock. In 2008 she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London). In 2011, she moved to University College London, where she studies the evolution of punishment and cooperation.