This course aims to provide students with the fundamental concepts and tools necessary to study human behavior and societies through an integrative approach. Key concepts from evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology and cognitive psychology will be introduced to explain a variety of social phenomena, ranging from political attitudes to narrative fictions. Through a variety of interdisciplinary case studies students will learn to apply these theories to real-world issues, including vaccine hesitancy, climate change and school drop-out. While focusing primarily on human social behavior, the course will also address the influence of environmental variability, subsistence strategies, and ecological legacies on human societies.


Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

- Understand the interaction between evolutionary, cognitive and cultural factors in shaping human behavior, and the role of environmental variability in this process.

- Master the key concepts from evolutionary psychology and behavioral ecology, such as life history traits, evolutionary stable strategies, conditional cooperation, and signaling.

- Develop a critical understanding of how humans produce social structures, institutions, and collective actions emerge in response to environmental and cultural factors.

- Apply the key concepts from evolutionary psychology and behavioral ecology to explore social sciences questions such as religious beliefs, political attitudes and aesthetic preferences


Prerequisites: None
ECTS: 4