Rate My Professor Joseph Henrich

Joseph Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology in Harvard University's Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, where he serves as Director of Graduate Studies. His research deploys evolutionary theory to understand how human psychology gives rise to cultural evolution and how this process has shaped humanity's genetic evolution. Henrich investigates topics such as economic decision-making, social norms, fairness, religion, marriage, prestige, cooperation, and innovation. He integrates ethnographic tools from anthropology with experimental techniques from psychology and economics. Henrich has conducted long-term anthropological fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, Chile, and Fiji, and has spearheaded several large comparative projects on cultural learning, cultural evolution, culture-gene coevolution, human sociality, prestige, leadership, large-scale cooperation, religion, and the emergence of complex human institutions.

Prior to joining Harvard, Henrich was Professor of Economics and Psychology at the University of British Columbia for nearly a decade, where he held the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition, and Coevolution. He also held the Peter and Charlotte Schoenenfeld Faculty Fellowship at New York University’s Stern School of Business from 2013 to 2014 and served as a Senior Fellow in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s Institutions, Organizations, and Growth program from 2010 to 2019. Henrich has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2004, the Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 2009, the Wegner Prize for Theoretical Innovation from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in 2018, and was elected a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society in 2021. His major books include The Secret of Our Success (Princeton University Press, 2016) and The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). Key publications feature 'How Cultural Diversity Drives Innovation: Surnames and Patents in US History' (Journal of Political Economy, 2026) and the edited volume The Evolution of Religion and Morality: Volume II (Routledge, 2024).