Policy and Cultural Evolution Lab

Understanding how behaviour spreads and societies change.

We study social learning, cultural evolution and behavioural change.

In the PaceLab we study social learning and cultural evolution in terms of both basic research and policy, and this work often consists of a mix of modeling and empiricism.

Our applied work covers various domains in which behavior has a clear cultural component. These include female genital cutting, corruption, sex-biased abortion, diet and health, and climate change.

We have conducted empirical research, largely experimental, in many countries in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

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30 September 2026

Award

BCV Award 2026 | PhD Thesis

Faculty of Business and Economics | University of Lausanne

Pykälä, M.

10 September 2026

Invited speaker

Workshop on People’s Understanding of and Support for Economic Policies

Riederau am Ammersee, Germany.

Moorthy, A.

15 August 2026

Publication

The (anti-)conformity strategy space: How flexible is social learning when group membership and incentive alignment vary?

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Advance online publication.

von Flüe, L., Vogt, S., Efferson, C.

10 July 2026

Invited speakers

Tenth International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioural Social Sciences,

IMEBESS, Prague, Czech Republic.

Efferson, C., Moorthy, A.