Why societies cooperate, innovate, and prosper

Using historical and cross-cultural evidence, I study how kinship and social structure shape institutions, psychology, and economic development.

I am Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Co-PI of the Historical Psychology Project at Harvard. In 2023 I received the Royal Economic Society Prize.

Jonathan F. Schulz

Research

Published & Forthcoming

2026
Culture and Gender Differences in Honesty

With Caroline Graf and Andreas Pondorfer · Economic Journal

How Cultural Diversity Drives Innovation: Surnames and Patents in U.S. History

With Max Posch and Joseph Henrich · Journal of Political Economy  media

2025
The Chronospatial Revolution in Psychology

With M. Atari and J. Henrich · Nature Human Behavior

Guilt- and Shame-Driven Prosociality Across Societies

With Catherine Molho, Ivan Soraperra, and Shaul Shalvi · Nature Human Behavior  media

Land Rights Institutions and the Scope of Cooperation

With Marco Fabbri and Daniele Nosenzo · Proceedings of the Royal Society B

The Science of Honesty: A Review and Research Agenda

Collaboration led by S. Shalvi · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

2024
Strategic Competition and Self-Confidence

With S. Brilon, S. Grassi, and M. Grieder · Management Science

2023
The Behavioural Mechanisms of Voluntary Cooperation across Culturally Diverse Societies

With T. Weber, B. Beranek, F. Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, and S. Gächter · Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

2022
Social Norms and Dishonesty across Societies

With D. Aycinena, L. Rentschler, and B. Beranek · PNAS  media data

Selection into Experiments: New Evidence on the Role of Preferences, Cognition, and Recruitment Protocols

With P. Thiemann, U. Sunde, and C. Thoeni · Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

2020
Reply to: Life and Death Decisions of Autonomous Vehicles

With A. Edmond, S. Dsouza, R. Kim, J. Henrich, A. Shariff, J. Bonnefon, and I. Rahwan · Nature

2019
The Church, Intensive Kinship, and Global Psychological Variation

With D. Bahrami-Rad, J. Beauchamp, and J. Henrich · Science  media data

Time Pressure Increases Honesty in a Sender-Receiver Deception Game

With V. Capraro and D. Rand · Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

2018
The Moral Machine Experiment

With A. Edmond, S. Dsouza, R. Kim, J. Henrich, A. Shariff, J. Bonnefon, and I. Rahwan · Nature  media

Nudging Generosity: Choice Architecture and Cognitive Factors in Charitable Giving

With P. Thiemann and C. Thöni · Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

2015
Overconfidence and Career Choice

With C. Thöni · PLoS ONE

2014
Affect and Fairness: Dictator Games under Cognitive Load

With U. Fischbacher, C. Thöni, and V. Utikal · Journal of Economic Psychology

Accepted Pre-registered Reports

The Cultural Prevalence of the Minimal Group Effect and its Relationship with Two Forms of Real-World Bias

Proposing author (PSA) with Kate Yang and Yarrow Dunham · Nature Human Behavior, principally accepted

Working Papers & Under Review

2025
Psychological Change and Kinship Intensity in China over Two Millennia

With Yuqi Chen, Mohammad Atari, Edward Slingerland, Ze Hong, Xiaokang Fu, Hongsu Wang, Peter Bol, and Joseph Henrich

2025
WEIRD Questions: Diversifying Conceptual Sampling

With Mohammad Atari, Ivan Kroupin, Liora Morhayim, Damián E. Blasi, and Joseph Henrich

2022
Kin-based Institutions and Economic Development

With Duman Bahrami-Rad, Jonathan Beauchamp, and Joseph Henrich · Review of Economic Studies, Revise & Resubmit

Work in Progress

The Complementarity of Good Institutions and Voluntary Cooperation: Experimental Evidence from 43 Societies

With S. Gächter and C. Thöni

We study the relationship between formal institutions and voluntary cooperation across 43 societies using a large-scale experimental design. We find evidence that good formal institutions and voluntary cooperation are complementary — societies with stronger institutions also exhibit higher baseline cooperation, and the two reinforce each other in producing public goods.
Intuitive Cooperation in Children across Societies

With Y. Dunham, E. Mandelbaum, K. McAuliffe, and D. Rand

We investigate whether the tendency to cooperate intuitively — without deliberation — varies systematically across societies and how this relates to cultural and institutional variation. Using a cross-cultural sample of children, we test whether cooperative intuitions are universal or culturally shaped.

Media & Press

Selected coverage

Podcast · Game Changer

The Marriage Penalty: How the Church Rewired Cooperation Networks

A conversation on kinship, cooperation, and the deep roots of Western psychology — listen now ↗

Cultural Diversity and Innovation — Journal of Political Economy

The Church, Intensive Kinship & Global Psychological Variation — Science 2019

The Moral Machine Experiment — Nature 2018

Intrinsic Honesty and Rule Violations — Nature 2016

Guilt- and Shame-Driven Prosociality — Nature Human Behavior 2025

Social Norms and Dishonesty — PNAS 2022

Contact

Academic Address

jschulz4@gmu.edu
Department of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030, USA