We have a new paper accepted at Physics of Life Reviews! We outline a model of social pressure, showing how it may be individually adaptive to conform to others’ expectations, with radical implications for accounts of social cognition and prosocial behavior. To foreground a few: We develop a novel explanation for status quo biases.

We suggest that prosocial behavior may be motivated (in part) by short-term predictability (rather than long-term reciprocity).

We outline how historical contingencies and social constructs may interface with brain biology.