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Dr Matthew Gervais
Lecturer in Psychology

Summary

I'm an evolutionary and cultural psychologist with a background in anthropology. My research takes a multi-level approach to human sociality, seeking to understand the mutual constitution and co-evolution of human emotions, social relationships, and social structures. I use a range of descriptive and confirmatory methods, including long-term participant observation, semi-structured interviews, cultural domain analysis, economic games, and social psychological surveys. I maintain an active field site working with indigenous iTaukei communities in the Fiji Islands. I also collaborate on multi-site comparative studies investigating human psychological and behavioural variation.

Qualifications

PhD 2013 - Biological Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

MA 2008 - Biological Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

BS/BA 2006 - Psychobiology/Philosophy/Anthropology, Binghamton University SUNY

Newest selected publications

Redhead, D., Gervais, M., Kajokaite, K., Koster, J., Hurtado Manyoma, A., Hurtado Manyoma, D., et al. (2024) 'Evidence of direct and indirect reciprocity in network-structured economic games'. Communications Psychology, 2 (1). pp. 1 - 13.Open Access Link

Journal article

Dale, R., Bryant, GA., Manson, JH. and Gervais, MM. (2020) 'Body synchrony in triadic interaction'. Royal Society Open Science, 7 (9). pp. 1 - 16. ISSN: 2054-5703 Open Access Link

Journal article

Pisor, AC., Gervais, MM., Purzycki, BG. and Ross, CT. (2020) 'Preferences and constraints: the value of economic games for studying human behaviour'. Royal Society Open Science, 7 (6). pp. 192090 - 192090. ISSN: 2054-5703 Open Access Link

Journal article

Kline, MA., Gervais, MM., Moya, C. and Boyd, RT. (2019) 'Irrelevant-action imitation is short-term and contextual: Evidence from two under-studied populations'. Developmental Science, 23 (3). pp. e12903. ISSN: 1363-755X

Journal article

Brewis, A., Wutich, A., du Bray, MV., Maupin, J., Schuster, RC. and Gervais, MM. (2018) 'Community hygiene norm violators are consistently stigmatized: Evidence from four global sites and implications for sanitation interventions'. Social Science and Medicine, 220. pp. 12 - 21. ISSN: 0277-9536

Journal article
More publications(9)