Humans routinely confront situations that require coordination among individuals, from mundane activities such as planning where to go for dinner to incredibly complicated activities, such as international agreements or trans-national ventures. Moreover, despite some failure, we frequently succeed in these situations. How did this ability evolve, and what prevents success in those situations in which it breaks down? To understand these and related questions, my lab utilizes an explicitly comparative approach to study the function of and mechanisms underlying decision-making. We look across a variety of species, particularly non-human primates, to explore the behavioral, cognitive and hormonal mechanisms underlying decision-making and how these decisions are influenced by ecology and the social environment.

• Curriculum Vitae

• Language Research Center

• Georgia State Psychology page

• GSU Neuroscience Institute

• GSU Department of Philosophy

• Google Scholar

• ResearchGate

why monkeys (and humans) are wired for Fairness

Some primates care a lot what their social partners get. Listen to Sarah’s TED talk as she explains how the evidence from these other primates shows us that humans evolved to care about fairness because we depend on cooperation, and if we can’t find partners who treat us fairly, cooperation just doesn’t pay. Photo courtesy of TED.

Monkey Business

Sarah has released a study helping prove that primates share similar feelings of inequity to humans and she will extend the research with a five-year National Science Foundation grant. In the next round of research, Sarah will work with Bart Wilson at Chapman University to do similar hands-on and computer game-like experiments on both humans and primates. The idea is to better understand how economic decision making strategies evolved and which, if any, are uniquely human.

– Science Nation, National Science Foundation