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Minerva Research Group

Human Origins of Self-Regulation


Research Interests

The goal of this research group is to investigate the roots of human self-regulation, a crucial skill for interacting effectively with the environment.

We investigate:

  1. how individuals control their initial impulses when dealing with the physical world.
  2. how individuals are able to regulate their behavior depending on the social environment
    (e.g. Reputation formation and management)

By using comparative methods to study the ontogeny of children from different cultural groups and by comparing humans with their nearest primate relatives, the non-human great apes, we will be able to draw conclusions about the evolution of the human self-regulatory system, investigate its cultural basis and identify developmental stages in self-regulatory behavior.