Alicia P. Melis

Biography

Alicia Melis is Associate Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. She joined WBS in 2012 and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig). She studied Biology at the Freie University of Berlin and received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Leipzig. She has published widely in leading journals including Psychological Science, Science, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Psychology and Marketing, Evolution and Human Behavior, Animal Behaviour, Biology Letters, Evolutionary Anthropology, Journal of Comparative Psychology and others. She investigates the phylogenetic roots and the development of human cooperative and prosocial behavior. She conducts studies with humans (mainly young children) and chimpanzees in African sanctuaries.

Research Interests

I am interested in the evolution of cooperation and in particular the psychological mechanisms supporting human cooperative and prosocial interactions. Which psychological traits underlying the cooperative relationships of humans are uniquely human and which traits do we share with other apes? To what extent are cooperative skills dependent on sophisticated communicative skills (e.g. language) and moral education? Although all human societies are based on cooperative interactions, cooperation is difficult and can break down easily, so what promotes and helps to stabilize coordination and cooperation between individuals?

Teaching in 2018-2019

Undergraduate

• IB3J00: Behavioural Economics
• IB2580: Foundations of Human Sociality and Cooperation
• IB3H80: Leadership

Undergraduate

• IB3J00: Behavioural Economics
• IB2580: Foundations of Human Sociality and Cooperation
• IB3H80: Leadership