Richard McElreath (born 18 April 1973) is an American professor of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and a director of the

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network. Well-known scientists currently based at ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Germany. He is an author of the ''Statistical Rethinking'' applied

Bayesian statistics Bayesian statistics ( or ) is a theory in the field of statistics based on the Bayesian interpretation of probability, where probability expresses a ''degree of belief'' in an event. The degree of belief may be based on prior knowledge about ...

textbook, among the first to largely rely on the Stan statistical environment, and the accompanying ''rethinking''

R language R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars''. The lette ...

package. He earned his B.S. at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

in 1995 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in anthropology under Robert Boyd at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

in 2001 with

field research Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fi ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Research

In 2001 to 2002 McElreath won a fellowship to work as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

studying

bounded rationality Bounded rationality is the idea that rationality is limited when individuals decision-making, make decisions, and under these limitations, rational individuals will select a decision that is satisficing, satisfactory rather than optimal. Limitat ...

at the Max Planck Institute under

Gerd Gigerenzer Gerd Gigerenzer (; born 3 September 1947) is a German psychologist who has studied the use of bounded rationality and heuristics in decision making. Gigerenzer is director emeritus of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC) at the Ma ...

. Since 2002 he is working for the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, teaching anthropology and conducting field work. He was awarded tenure (2006) and promoted to full

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

(2014), holding the chair of the Evolutionary Anthropology department from 2014 to 2015. Since 2015 he is one of the directors at the

. His main research focus lies in the evolution of cultural behaviors. Expanding on his work in anthropology, he has also been researching the social dynamics of the

replication crisis The replication crisis, also known as the reproducibility or replicability crisis, refers to the growing number of published scientific results that other researchers have been unable to reproduce or verify. Because the reproducibility of empir ...

in science and contributing to statistical education. His work has been covered by professional and popular media, e.g. in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

,'' ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' ''

Pacific Standard ''Pacific Standard'', founded as ''Miller–McCune'', was an American nonprofit magazine that reported on issues of social and environmental justice. Founded in 2008, the magazine was published in print and online for its first ten years. It was ...

,'' and ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

.''

Selected publications

Books

* McElreath, Richard and Robert Boyd, ''Mathematical Models of Social Evolution: A Guide for the Perplexed''. University of Chicago Press, 2007 * McElreath, Richard. ''Statistical rethinking: A Bayesian course with examples in R and Stan''. Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2015.

Articles and chapters

* Henrich, Joseph, Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles, Colin Camerer, Ernst Fehr, Herbert Gintis, and Richard McElreath. "In search of homo economicus: behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies." ''American Economic Review'' 91, no. 2 (2001): 73–78. * Henrich, Joseph, Richard McElreath, Abigail Barr, Jean Ensminger, Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Juan Camilo Cardenas et al. "Costly punishment across human societies." ''Science'' 312, no. 5781 (2006): 1767–1770. * Henrich, Joseph, Jean Ensminger, Richard McElreath, Abigail Barr, Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Juan Camilo Cardenas et al. "Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment." ''Science'' 327, no. 5972 (2010): 1480–1484. * Henrich, Joseph, and Richard McElreath. "The evolution of cultural evolution." ''Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews: Issues, News, and Reviews'' 12, no. 3 (2003): 123–135. * Dawes, Christopher T., James H. Fowler, Tim Johnson, Richard McElreath, and Oleg Smirnov. "Egalitarian motives in humans." ''Nature'' 446, no. 7137 (2007): 794.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McElreath, Richard American anthropologists 1973 births Living people Emory University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni People from Landstuhl University of California, Davis faculty R (programming language) people Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Max Planck Institute directors

Research

Selected publications

Books

Articles and chapters

See also

References