Robert Kurzban
{{Short description|American psychologist}}
{{use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
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| name = Robert Kurzban
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1969|09|29}}
| birth_place = Poughkeepsie, New York
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| occupation = Psychologist
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| website = {{URL|robkurzban.com}}
| education = BA, Cornell University, 1991; Ph.D, UCSB, 1998
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| thesis_title = The Social Psychophysics of Cooperation in Groups
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| thesis_year = 1998
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| doctoral_advisor = Leda Cosmides & John Tooby
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| discipline = Psychology
| sub_discipline = Evolutionary Psychology
| workplaces = University of Pennsylvania
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| notable_works = Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind
The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind: How Self-Interest Shapes Our Opinions and Why We Won’t Admit It
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Robert Kurzban is an American freelance writer and former psychology professor specializing in evolutionary psychology.
Career
Kurzban was a tenured professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania until 2018, when he resigned following allegations of inappropriate relationships with undergraduate students. Following his resignation, he was dismissed as the director of the department's honors program.{{cite web | last=Liu | first=Manlu | title=Professor Kurzban resigned after allegations of inappropriate relationships with students | website=The Daily Pennsylvanian | date=2018-07-22 | url=https://www.thedp.com/article/2018/07/robert-kurzban-resigns-professor-upenn-romantic-relationships-philadelphia-penn-psychology | access-date=2023-01-08}}{{cite web | last=Mondon | first=Marielle | title=Penn professor resigns following allegations of inappropriate relationships with students | website=PhillyVoice | date=2018-07-25 | url=https://www.phillyvoice.com/penn-professor-kurzban-resigns-sexual-misconduct-allegations-relationships-students/ | access-date=2023-01-08}} He also resigned as president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) and as Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s journal, Evolution and Human Behavior.{{cite web | last=Pages | first=Academic Web | title=Changes in HBES President and E&HB Editor-in-Chief | website=HBES | date=2018-05-02 | url=https://www.hbes.com/changes-in-hbes-president-and-ehb-editor-in-chief/ | access-date=2023-01-08}} Since then he has worked as a freelance writer.
Kurzban was trained by two pioneers in the field of evolutionary psychology, John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, and his research focused on evolutionary approaches to understanding human social behavior. He took an adaptationist view of human psychology, studying the adaptive function, or, survival value, in the adoption of traits by humans. His work aimed at understanding the functions of psychological mechanisms occurring in human social life. He used methods drawn from social psychology, cognitive psychology, and especially experimental economics to research topics including morality, punishment, and mate choice.{{sfn|DeScioli|Kurzban|2013}}{{sfn|Kurzban|Weeden|2005}}
Evolutionary psychology has come under attack from a number of critics. Kurzban was active in defending the discipline from prominent detractors and also worked to clarify the principle of cognitive modularity, which plays an important role in the discipline.{{cite journal | url = http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/apd.html
| author = Kurzban, R. | year = 2002 | title = Alas poor evolutionary psychology: Unfairly accused, unjustly condemned. [Review of Alas Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology edited by H. Rose and S. Rose
He was elected president of HBES in 2017.{{cite web | title=About HBES | website=HBES | date=2022-07-08 | url=https://www.hbes.com/about/ | access-date=2023-01-08}}
Selected publications
- {{cite book | last1=Weeden | first1=Jason | last2=Kurzban | first2=Robert | title=The hidden agenda of the political mind: how self-interest shapes our opinions and why we won't admit it | publisher=Princeton University Press | date=2014 | isbn=978-0-691-16111-2}}
- {{cite journal | last1=DeScioli | first1=Peter | last2=Kurzban | first2=Robert | title=A solution to the mysteries of morality. | journal=Psychological Bulletin | publisher=American Psychological Association (APA) | volume=139 | issue=2 | year=2013 | issn=1939-1455 | doi=10.1037/a0029065 | pages=477–496| pmid=22747563 }}
- {{cite book | last=Kurzban | first=Robert | title=Why everyone (else) is a hypocrite: evolution and the modular mind | publisher=Princeton University Press | date=2010 | isbn=978-0-691-15439-8}}
- {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1037/0033-295X.113.3.628 | last1 = Barrett | first1 = H. C. | last2 = Kurzban | first2 = R. | year = 2006 | title = Modularity in cognition: Framing the debate | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 113 | issue = 3| pages = 628–647 | pmid = 16802884 }}
- {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.08.012 | last1 = Kurzban | first1 = R. | last2 = Weeden | first2 = J. | year = 2005 | title = HurryDate: Mate preferences in action | journal = Evolution and Human Behavior | volume = 26 | issue = 3| pages = 227–244 | bibcode = 2005EHumB..26..227K }}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Evolutionary psychologists}}
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Category:Cornell University alumni
Category:University of California, Santa Barbara alumni
Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Category:University of Arizona faculty
Category:Evolutionary psychologists
Category:American moral psychologists
Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty
Category:Writers from Poughkeepsie, New York