I investigate social behavior, from bacteria to humans, using the tools of mathematical and computational modeling. One of my favorite tools is game theory, but I use others as well. I have written papers on understanding reasoning in groups (called "social epistemology" in philosophy), the evolution of language, social norms, and ethics. For more detail, please reference my academic CV, my published papers, or my talks and presentations.
All of these share a common thread of using modeling techniques from the social sciences to analyze problems of philosophical interest. The interaction of social science methods with philosophical reasoning is a productive technique that I'm happy to see catching on.
Signaling
While human language seems different than how animals communicate, there is some substantial overlap. We can learn a lot about both human and animal language by looking for commonalities. Game theory presents a natural technique for investigating linguistic phenomena like meaning, honesty, and deception.
I have investigated a number of questions regarding the evolution of rudimentary languages. This research has employed game theory in an attempt to better understand how simple languages might evolve or be learned by animals or humans and also to better understand how language functions in our society.
Because this research spans both philosophy and biology, I have published in both biology and philosophy journals.
Social epistemology and Social Structure of Science
Most of what we know, we learn from others. Collective intelligence (sometimes known as "wisdom of the crowds") is a powerful tool that we humans use for everything from science to social media. However, there is also a dark side to our collective intellectual endeavors: things like group think, polarization, misinformation, and echo chambers. My research looks at how we learn in groups and how we can make that better.
Science is the most impressive of our social epistemic enterprises. Much of my research in this area has looked at how the social organization of science works and how it could be made better. This field, now called "metascience," is an important and growing area that helps us to see how real science works (not just our caricature of it).
On twitter I described this research with emoji:
@NatureNews □□❌□.□□↔□➕□□□. Translation: scientists aren't perfect they're influenced by economics and their peers.
I have worked on a number of problems in the evolution of social behavior, especially cooperation. I have considered both how norms of mutual benefit and fairness might have evolved in very simple circumstances.
What features of the social world encourage the evolution of cooperative behavior?
Why should framing effects have evolved?
How do cognitive abilities effect the evolution of cooperative behavior?
In an ongoing collaboration with Alex London and others, I have been applying techniques from game theory to problems in ethics. Much of our work has focused on understanding the value people place on their dignity and how this interacts with economic decisions they make.