Karthik Panchanathan

I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Co-Director of the Evolution, Science and Society Group at the University of Missouri. My research interests include cooperation and social evolution, cultural evolution, evolution of learning and development, metascience, and philosophy of biology. I teach courses on cultural anthropology, the evolution of human nature, theory in anthropology, and the department capstone seminar.

Recent publications

The evolution of sensitive periods beyond early ontogeny: Bridging theory and data

Nicole Walasek, Karthik Panchanathan, Willem E. Frankenhuis

Functional Ecology, 2024

Tinbergen’s Fifth: What role should subjective experience play in human ethology?

André Ariew, Karthik Panchanathan

Agathe du Crest, Martina Valković, André Ariew, Hugh Desmond, Philippe Huneman, Thomas Reydon, Problems and Perspectives in Generalized Darwinism, Springer, 2023

Biology, society, or choice: How do non-experts interpret explanations of behaviour?

Daniel Nettle, Willem E. Frankenhuis, Karthik Panchanathan

Open Mind, vol. 7, 2023, pp. 625-651

Cultural Evolution

Karthik Panchanathan

Jeremy Koster, Brooke Scelza, Mary Shenk, Human Behavioral Ecology, Cambridge University Press, 2023

Shifting the level of selection in science

Leonid Tiokhin, Karthik Panchanathan, Paul Smaldino, Daniel Lakens

Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2023

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