Psychological Foundations of Culture

How does culture emerge?  Why do cultures have the particular features that they do, rather than others?  How can we predict the ways in which cultures will persist and change over time?  Over the last few years, I've been pursuing several different lines of research that address these questions. 

Representative Publications:

Murray, D. R., Trudeau, R., & Schaller, M. (2011).  On the origins of cultural differences in conformity: Four tests of the pathogen prevalence hypothesis.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 318-329.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2011).  Infectious disease and the creation of culture.  In M. Gelfand, C.-y. Chiu, & Y.-y. Hong (Eds.), Advances in Culture and Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 99-151).  New York: Oxford University Press.  [pdf]

Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2010).  Historical prevalence of infectious diseases within 230 geopolitical regions: A tool for investigating origins of culture.  Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41, 99-108.  [pdf]

Hoben, A. D., Buunk, A. P., Fincher, C. L., Thornhill, R., & Schaller, M. (2010).  On the adaptive origins and maladaptive consequences of inbreeding: Parasite prevalence, immune functioning, and consanguineous marriage.  Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 658-676.  [pdf]

Thornhill, R., Fincher, C. L., Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2010).  Zoonotic and non-zoonotic diseases in relation in human personality and societal values: Support for the parasite-stress model.  Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 151-169.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2010).  Infectious diseases and the evolution of cross-cultural differences.  In M. Schaller, A. Norenzayan, S. J. Heine, T. Yamagishi, & T. Kameda (Eds.), Evolution, culture, and the human mind (pp. 243-256).  New York: Psychology Press.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2008).  Pathogens, personality and culture: Disease prevalence predicts worldwide variability in sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 212-221.  [pdf]

Fincher, C. L., Thornhill, R., Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2008). Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural variability in individualism / collectivism.  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275, 1279-1285.  [pdf]

Schaller, M. (2007).  Turning garbage into gold: Evolutionary universals and cross-cultural differences.  In S. W. Gangestad & J. A. Simpson (Eds.), The evolution of mind (pp. 363-371). New York: Guilford Press.  [doc]

Conway, L. G., III, & Schaller, M. (2007).  How communication shapes culture.  In K. Fiedler (Ed.), Social communication (pp. 107-127).  New York: Psychology Press.   [doc]

Norenzayan, A., Atran, S., Faulkner, J., & Schaller, M. (2006).  Memory and mystery: The cultural selection of minimally counterintuitive narratives.  Cognitive Science, 30, 531-553.  [pdf]

Schaller, M. (2006). Parasites, behavioral defenses, and the social psychological mechanisms through which cultures are evoked.  Psychological Inquiry, 17, 96-101.  [pdf]

Norenzayan, A., Schaller, M., & Heine, S. J. (2006).  Evolution and culture.  In M. Schaller, J. A. Simpson, & D. T. Kenrick (Eds.), Evolution and social psychology (pp. 343-366).  New York: Psychology Press.  [doc]

Lehman, D. R., Chiu, C.-Y., & Schaller, M. (2004).  Psychology and culture.  Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 689-714.  [pdf]

Crandall, C. S., & Schaller, M. (2004).  Scientists and science:  How individual goals shape collective norms.  In M. Schaller & C. S. Crandall (Eds.), The psychological foundations of culture (pp. 201-223).  Mahwah NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kenrick, D. T., Maner, J. K., Butner, J., Li, N. P., Becker, V., & Schaller, M. (2002).  Dynamical evolutionary psychology:  Mapping the domains of the new interactionist paradigm.  Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 347-356.  [pdf] 

Schaller, M., Conway, L. G., III, & Tanchuk, T. L. (2002). Selective pressures on the once and future contents of ethnic stereotypes: Effects of the communicability of traits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 861-877.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Conway, L. G., III (2001). From cognition to culture: The origins of stereotypes that really matter. In G. Moscowitz (Ed.), Cognitive social psychology: On the tenure and future of social cognition (pp. 163-176) Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schaller, M. (2001). Unintended influence: Social-evolutionary processes in the construction and change of culturally-shared beliefs. In J. Forgas & K. Williams (Eds.), Social influence: Direct and indirect processes (pp. 77-93). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

Schaller, M., & Conway, L. G., III (1999). Influence of impression-management goals on the emerging contents of group stereotypes: Support for a social-evolutionary process. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 819-833.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Crandall, C. S. (1999).  Individual goals in evolving organizations.  American Psychologist, 54, 778-779.   [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Latane, B. (1996). Dynamic social impact and the evolution of social representations: A natural history of stereotypes. Journal of Communication, 46(4), 64-71.  [pdf]