Environmental contingencies

Seminar organized by Jean Decety, 2021-2022 Paris IAS Fellow, as part of his "Social neuroscience" series

Environmental contingencies affect people’s survival, reproduction, and economics. Humans have developed conditional adaptions that enabled accelerated life history development when exposed to environmental unpredictability. The degree to which people experience threats to their survival also has general effects on their society’s cultural norms and values. High levels of economics and physical security usually lead to pervasive intergenerational cultural changes, with a shift from materialist to postmaterialist values.

With the participation of Albert Ogien (sociologist) – EHESS, Paris.

Recommended readings:

Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Delton, A. W., & Robertson, T. E. (2011). The influence of mortality and socioeconomic status on risk and delayed rewards: a life history theory approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(6), 1015-1026.

Dickerson, K. L., Milojevich, H. M., & Quas, J. A. (2019). Early environmental unpredictability: Implications for youth’s perceptions and social functioning. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(9), 1754-1764.

Zhu, N., Hawk, S. T., & Chang, L. (2019). Unpredictable and competitive cues affect prosocial behaviors and judgments. Personality and Individual Differences, 138, 203-211.