Nichola Raihani on the Science of Cooperation

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Nichola Raihani, the author of "The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World", to discuss what makes us human and how our societies work. Nichola Raihani believes that although individuals are expected to benefit from selfish behaviour; cooperation is not only commonplace in nature, but is of profound evolutionary and social significance, being responsible for most of the major evolutionary transitions. Nichola aims to elucidate the mechanisms that maintain cooperation in interactions where partners may otherwise be tempted to exploit one another. In parallel, she investigates the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of individual variation in cooperative behaviour. To answer these questions, Nichola works on a variety of systems, including humans and non-human animals. Nichola Raihani is PI of the Social Evolution and Behaviour Lab. She is Professor in Evolution and Behaviour, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.