Research

Cross-Species Comparison

Among great ape species, human behaviour appears to be exceptionally variable across populations. Differences in population-level cultural diversity between humans and their phylogenetic relatives owe, in large part, to divergent ontogenetic, social, ecological, cognitive, and behavioural factors. Important causal factors include, for example, conditions of brain development, capacities for social interaction and social learning, mechanisms of group formation and intra- and inter-group cooperation, etc. The Max Planck Research Group for Comparative Cognitive Anthropology aims to identify those uniquely human psychological mechanisms that produce and stabilize cross-cultural behavioural diversity.

 

Cross-Cultural Comparison

To what extent are patterns of human cultural variation related to variable cognitive function? Although some evidence supports the notion of cognitive universals, several domains of cognition have been shown to vary much more than previously expected. The Max Planck Research Group for Comparative Cognitive Anthropology investigates population-level variability of human cognition through comparisons across selected sets of human groups across the globe.

 

 

Cross-Age Comparison

How do inherited cognitive structures and cultural context interact? At the intersection of our evolutionary past and our cultural circumstance lies child development. For a better understanding of cross-cultural variability we investigate its emergence in human children across human populations. At the same time we investigate how children come to understand and participate in the uniquely human forms of group behaviour creating and maintaining inter group differences over time. Understanding the emergence of a system offers extraordinary insight into its functioning.