Integrative Anthropology Lab
In press
Katiyar, T., Bonnefon, J. F., Mehr, S. A., & Singh, M. (in press) Discovering the unknown unknowns of research cartography with high-throughput natural description. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. [Commentary on Almaatouq et al.]
Graziosi, M., Singh, M., Nayak, S. M., & Yaden, D. B. (in press) Acute subjective effects of psychedelics within and beyond WEIRD contexts. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.
2023
Fitouchi, L. & Singh, M. (2023) Punitive justice serves to restore reciprocal cooperation in three small-scale societies. Evolution and Human Behavior 44:502–514.
Yurdum, L., Singh, M., Glowacki, L., Vardy, T., Atkinson, Q., Hilton, C., Sauter, D., Krasnow, M., & Mehr, S. A. (2023) Universal interpretations of vocal music. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120:e2218593120.
Singh, M. & Mehr, S. A. (2023) Universality, domain-specificity and development of psychological responses to music. Nature Reviews Psychology 2:333–346.
Nayak, S. M., Singh, M., Yaden, D. B., & Griffiths, R. (2023) Belief changes associated with psychedelic use. Journal of Psychopharmacology 37:80–92.
2022
Singh, M. (2022) Subjective selection and the evolution of complex culture. Evolutionary Anthropology 31:266–280.
Singh, M. (2022) Cognitive and evolutionary foundations of superstition and paranoia. Current Anthropology 63:456-457. [Response to reply by Planer and Sterelny]
Hilton, C. B., Moser, C., Bertolo, M., Lee-Rubin, H., Amir, D., Bainbridge, C. M., Simson, J., Knox, D., Glowacki, L., Alemu, E., Galbarczyk, A., Jasienska, G., Ross, C. T., Neff, M. B., Martin, A., Cirelli, L. K., Trehub, S. E., Song, J., Kim, M., Schachner, A., Vardy, T. A., Atkinson, Q. D., Salenius, A., Andelin, J., Antfolk, J., Madhivanan, P., Siddaiah, A., Placek, C. D., Salali, G. D., Keestra, S., Singh, M., Collins, S. A., Patton, J. Q., Scaff, C., Stieglitz, J., Ccari Cutipa, S., Moya, C., Sagar, R. R., Anyawire, M., Mabulla, A., Wood, B. M., Krasnow, M. M., & Mehr, S. A. (2022). Acoustic regularities in infant-directed speech and song across cultures. Nature Human Behaviour 6:1545–1556.
Singh, M. & Glowacki, L. (2022) Human social organization during the Late Pleistocene: Beyond the nomadic-egalitarian model. Evolution and Human Behavior 43:418-431.
Singh, M. & Garfield, Z. (2022) Evidence for third-party mediation but not punishment in Mentawai justice. Nature Human Behaviour 6:930-940.
Fitouchi, L. & Singh, M. (2022) Supernatural punishment beliefs as cognitively compelling tools of social control. Current Opinion in Psychology 44:252-257.
2021
Singh, M. (2021) The sympathetic plot, its psychological origins, and implications for the evolution of fiction. Emotion Review 13:183-198.
Singh, M., Acerbi, A., Caldwell, C., Danchin, É., Isabel, G., Molleman, L., Scott-Phillips, T., Tamariz, M., Van der Berg, P., van Leuwen, E., & Derex, M. (2021) Beyond social learning. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376:20200050.
Singh, M. (2021) Science, delusions, explosive cockroaches, and other issues surrounding witchcraft and sorcery. Current Anthropology 62:22-24. [Response to commentaries]
Singh, M. (2021) Magic, explanations, and evil: The origins and design of witches and sorcerers. Current Anthropology 62:2-29.
Singh, M., Kaptchuk, T. J., & Henrich, J. (2021) Small gods, rituals, and cooperation: The Mentawai water spirit Sikameinan. Evolution and Human Behavior 42:61-72.
Bertolo, M., Singh, M., & Mehr, S. A. (2021) Sound-induced motion in chimpanzees does not imply shared ancestry for music or dance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118:e2015664118. [Letter in reply to Hattori & Tomonaga]
2020 and earlier
Singh, M. & Henrich, J. (2020) Why do religious leaders observe costly prohibitions? Examining taboos on Mentawai shamans. Evolutionary Human Sciences 2:e32.
Singh, M. (2020) Why people rarely divine by flipping coins. Current Anthropology 61. [Commentary on Boyer]
Mehr, S. A., Singh, M., Knox, D., Ketter, D. M., Pickens-Jones, D., Atwood, S., Lucas, C., Egner, A., Jacoby, N., Hopkins, E. J., Howard, R. M., Hartshorne, J. K., Jennings, M. V., Simson, J., Bainbridge, C. M., Pinker, S., O’Donnell, T. J., Krasnow, M. M., & Glowacki, L. (2019) Universality and diversity in human song. Science 366:eaxx0868.
Singh, M. (2018) Why is there shamanism? Developing the cultural evolutionary theory and addressing alternative accounts. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41:e92. [Response to commentaries]
Singh, M. (2018) The cultural evolution of shamanism. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41:e66.
Mehr, S. A., Singh, M., York, H., Glowacki, L., & Krasnow, M. M. (2018) Form and function in human song. Current Biology 28:356-368.
Singh, M., Wrangham, R. W., & Glowacki, L. (2017) Self-interest and the design of rules. Human Nature 28:457-480.
Singh, M., Glowacki, L., & Wrangham, R. W. (2016) Self-interested agents create, maintain, and modify group-functional culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39:e52. [Commentary on Richerson et al.]
Ioannou, C. C., Singh, M. & Couzin, I. D. (2015) Potential leaders trade-off goal-oriented and socially-oriented behavior in mobile animal groups. The American Naturalist 186:284-293.
Singh, M. & Boomsma, J. J. (2015) Policing and punishment across the domains of social evolution. Oikos 124:971-982.