Mark Schaller
Research Area
Education
PhD, Arizona State University, 1989
About
Dr. Mark Schaller (he/him/his) is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. In recent years his research has focused on human motivational systems (e.g., the “behavioral immune system,” the parental care motivational system) and their implications for social cognition and social interaction (e.g., impression formation, moral judgment, prejudice, conformity). His research also addresses broader questions about evolutionary foundations of psychological processes, and about the impact of psychological processes on human culture.
Teaching
Research
Research interests include social cognition; social motivation; evolutionary psychology; culture.
Dr. Schaller’s secondary research areas are Cognitive Science and Learning Enhancement.
Publications
For a longer list of publications, see website here.
Muthukrishna, M., & Schaller, M. (2020). Are collectivistic cultures more prone to rapid transformation? Computational models of cross-cultural differences, social network structure, dynamic social influence, and cultural change. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 24, 103-120.
Hofer, M. K., Collins, H. K., Mishra, G. D., & Schaller, M. (2019). Do post-menopausal women provide more care to their kin?: Evidence of grandparental caregiving from two large-scale national surveys. Evolution and Human Behavior, 40, 355-364.
Schaller, M. (2018). The parental care motivational system and why it matters (for everyone). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27, 295–301.
White, C. J. M., & Schaller, M. (2018). Are children perceived to be morally exceptional? Different sets of psychological variables predict adults’ moral judgments about adults and about young children. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 1147-1162.
Schaller, M., Kenrick, D.T., Neel, R., & Neuberg, S.L. (2017). Evolution and human motivation: A fundamental motives framework. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11, e12319.
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2016). The behavioral immune system: Implications for social cognition, social interaction, and social influence. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 75-129.
Schaller, M. (2016). The empirical benefits of conceptual rigor: Systematic articulation of conceptual hypotheses can reduce the risk of non-replicable results (and facilitate novel discoveries too). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 107-115.
Buckels, E. E., Beall, A. T., Hofer, M. K., Lin, E. Y., Zhou, Z., & Schaller, M. (2015). Individual differences in activation of the parental care motivational system: Assessment, prediction, and implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 497-514.
Schaller, M., & Neuberg, S. L. (2012). Danger, disease, and the nature of prejudice(s). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1-54.
Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., & Schaller, M. (2010). Renovating the pyramid of needs: Contemporary extensions built upon ancient foundations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 292-314.
Awards
- Society for the Psychology Study of Social Issues – Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Award (2013)
- American Psychological Association Fellow (2010)
- Society of Experimental Social Psychology (2009)
- Society for Personality and Social Psychology Fellow (2009)
- Association for Psychological Science (2007)
- Killam Faculty Research Prize (2006)
- Robert E. Knox Master Teaching Award (2002)
- Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies – Early Career Scholar (2000)
Graduate Supervision
Currently accepting graduate students.