Research in this group explores the evolution of cooperation in nature. In particular, we ask what mechanisms can maintain cooperation in interactions where partners may otherwise be tempted to exploit one another. In parallel, we investigate the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of individual variation in social behaviour.
We work on a variety of model species; and use real-world and lab-based methods to tackle these questions.
We are striving to be an open science lab. We publish in open access journals, we pre-register our experiments when we can, and we routinely post the materials, data and code to reproduce analyses online.
If you’re keen to come and work with in the Social Evolution and Behaviour Lab at UCL, please get in touch.
Principal investigator
Nichola Raihani is PI of the Social Evolution and Behaviour Lab. She is Professor in Evolution and Behaviour, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
1. I did a ski season (St Anton)
— Nichola Raihani (@nicholaraihani) August 20, 2019
2.nearly got me&brother killed during that ski season-rescued by a piste basher.
3.Rejected by Oxford (Econ & Mngemt).Yrs later (when I started working on it) realised that interviewer had asked me to solve Prisoner’s Dilemma. #3facts5scientists https://t.co/mkMXffXoj5
An interesting case of turn taking / reciprocity: because seals don’t have hands, they need a partner to hold onto the penguin they just killed, so that they can bite a mouthful off. Then they do the same for the partner. Quite cool! https://t.co/czMBdmEvT6
— Nichola Raihani (@nicholaraihani) August 18, 2019
The 3 words that could save your life. I originally heard about this idea quite a few years ago, from @rorysutherland https://t.co/mKY4WpcjYu
— Nichola Raihani (@nicholaraihani) August 16, 2019
Nichola Raihani awarded Philip Leverhulme Prize for Psychology
New paper shows that social threat causes paranoid thinking
Nichola Raihani elected to Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology