Dr. Joseph Henrich is a noted author, anthropologist, professor, and Chair of Harvard University’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. His research focuses on evolutionary approaches to psychology, decision-making, culture, and the emergence of complex human institutions. In his first book, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter (2016), Henrich credits humanity’s success to the cumulative knowledge and rapid cultural evolution of cooperative society: “more minds can generate more lucky errors, novel recombinations, chance insights, and intentional improvements.” Building on this thesis, The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous (2020) explores how and why Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies thrive.
Before moving to Harvard, Dr. Henrich was a professor of both economics and psychology at the University of British Columbia for nearly a decade, where he held the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition and Coevolution. In 2013-2014, he held the Peter and Charlotte Schoenenfeld Faculty Fellowship at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
