Dr. Jan Engelmann

Biography

Jan Engelmann is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. His research interests lie in the fields of developmental psychology, comparative psychology, and cross-cultural psychology. Engelmann's work focuses on understanding the evolutionary origins of social behaviors in humans and other primates, particularly through the lens of cooperation and competition. He investigates how human children develop cooperative skills and motivations as they grow and how these processes may vary across different cultural contexts. Engelmann has published several significant studies exploring themes such as fairness, social reputation, and altruistic behaviors, using comparative analyses that include chimpanzees. His research aims to elucidate the cognitive characteristics unique to humans that underlie complex social interactions.

Research Interests