The Secret of Our Success

Date: Wednesday 22 June 2016 Time: 6.30-8pm Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building Speaker: Professor Joseph Henrich Chair: Professor Timothy Besley The ability of human groups to socially interconnect and learn from one another has allowed us to create ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions that have enabled successful expansion into myriad environments. Drawing insights from lost European explorers, clever chimpanzees, mobile hunter-gatherers, neuroscience, ancient bones, and the human genome, Joseph Henrich, author of The Secret of Our Success, will discuss how our collective intelligence has propelled our species’ evolution. Joseph Henrich (@JoHenrich) is a professor at Harvard University in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, and holds a Canada Research Chair at UBC, where he's a professor in both Economics and Psychology. His research focuses on cultural evolution, and culture-driven genetic evolution. He’s conducted fieldwork in Peru, Chile and in the South Pacific. In 2004 he won the Presidential Early Career Award (USA). Timothy Besley is School Professor of Economics and Political Science & W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at LSE. STICERD (@STICERD_LSE) brings together world-class academics to put economics and related disciplines at the forefront of research and policy. Founded in 1978 by the renowned Japanese economist Michio Morishima, with donations from Suntory and Toyota, we are a thriving research community within the LSE.