H Clark Barrett

Clark Barrett

Associate Professor

UCLA Department of Anthropology

376 Haines Hall, Box 951553

Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1553

310-267-4260

barrett [at] anthro.ucla.edu

My research takes an evolutionary psychological approach to understanding cognitive development by using parallel cross-cultural studies, primarily in the U.S. and among the Shuar of Ecuador, to test hypotheses about the design features of evolved psychological mechanisms. My recent research focuses on mechanisms that leverage features of social and natural environments to shape developmental outcomes. I am currently coordinator of anthropological research for the AHRC Culture and the Mind Project, in which we’re conducting parallel cross-cultural experiments on folk psychology, moral psychology, and the psychological mechanisms underlying artifacts and material culture. I am also a former director and faculty affiliate of the FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development, and a member of the UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture.

Selected papers

Information for prospective PhD students and postdocs

Research opportunities among the Shuar of Ecuador

AHRC Culture and the Mind Project

Barrett. H. C. (2011). The wrong kind of wrong: a review of What Darwin Got Wrong by Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32, 76-78.

Cosmides, L., Barrett, H. C., & Tooby, J. (2010). Adaptive specializations, social exchange, and the evolution of human intelligence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 9007-9014.

Henrich, J., Ensminger, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D., and Ziker, J. (2010). Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment. Science, 327, 1480-1484.

read the Science commentary

Henrich, J., Ensminger, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D., and Ziker, J. (2010). Response - Evolution of fairness. Science, 329, 389-390. (Reply to commentaries by Baumard et al. and Delton et al.)

PDF (commentaries and reply)

Hagen, E. H., and Barrett, H. C. (2009). Cooperative breeding and adolescent siblings: Evidence for the ecological constraints model? Current Anthropology, 50, 727-737.

Wilke, A., and Barrett, H. C. (2009). The hot hand phenomenon as a cognitive adaptation to clumped resources. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 161-169.

supplementary materials

Barrett, H. C. (2009). Where there is an adaptation, there is a domain: The form-function fit in information processing. In Platek, S.M. & Shackelford, T.K. (eds.). Foundations in evolutionary cognitive neuroscience (pp. 97-116). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Barrett, H. C., Frankenhuis, W., & Wilke, A. (2008). Adaptation to moving targets: Culture / gene coevolution, not either / or. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 511-512.

Barrett, H. C. (2008). Evolved cognitive mechanisms and human behavior. In Crawford, C. & Krebs, D. (eds.) Foundations of evolutionary psychology: Ideas, issues, applications and findings. (2nd Ed.) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.

Barrett, H. C. (2007). Development as the target of evolution: A computational approach to developmental systems. In: Gangestad, S., and Simpson, J., eds. The Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies. (pp. 186-192). New York: Guilford.

Barrett, H. C. (2007). Modules in the flesh. In: Gangestad, S., and Simpson, J., eds. The Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies. (pp. 161-170). New York: Guilford.

Barrett, H. C., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2007). The hominid entry into the cognitive niche. In: Gangestad, S., and Simpson, J., eds. The Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies. (pp. 241-248). New York: Guilford.

Bryant, G. A., & Barrett, H. C. (2007). Recognizing intentions in infant-directed speech: Evidence for universals. Psychological Science, 18, 746-751.

Machery, E., and Barrett, H. C. (2006). Debunking Adapting Minds. Philosophy of Science, 73, 232-246.

Hagen, E., and Barrett, H. C. (2007). Perinatal sadness among Shuar women: Support for an evolutionary theory of psychic pain. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 21, 22-40.

Barrett, H. C., and Kurzban, R. (2006). Modularity in cognition: Framing the debate. Psychological Review, 113, 628-647.

Barrett, H. C., Frederick, D., Haselton, M., & Kurzban, R. (2006). Can manipulations of cognitive load be used to test evolutionary hypotheses? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 513-518.

Henrich, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Ensminger, J., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D., and Ziker, J. (2006). Costly punishment across human societies. Science, 312, 1767-1770.

Barrett, H. C. (2005). Enzymatic computation and cognitive modularity. Mind and Language, 20, 259-287.

Barrett, H. C. & Behne, T. (2005). Children’s understanding of death as the cessation of agency: A test using sleep versus death. Cognition, 96, 93-108.

Barrett, H.C., Todd, P.M., Miller, G.F., and Blythe, P. (2005). Accurate judgments of intention from motion alone: A cross-cultural study. Evolution and Human Behavior, 26, 313-331.

Supplementary materials

German, T., & Barrett, H.C. (2005). Functional fixedness in a technologically sparse culture. Psychological Science, 16, 1-5.

Barrett, H. C. (2006). Modularity and design reincarnation. In Carruthers, P., Laurence, S., & Stich, S. (Eds.), The innate mind: Culture and cognition. (pp. 199-217). New York: Oxford University Press.