Dr Keith Jensen
Lecturer
• Room: 2.38, Fogg Building
• Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 5902
• Email: k.jensen("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk
Research interests:
Developmental and comparative psychology
My research focusses on the origins of human sociality. Specifically, I am interested in the nature of other-regarding concerns. Empathy is a prototypical example of such a concern, and it is easy to see how concern for the well-being of others is important for sociality; empathy can motivate acts of altruism. Spite is another example of an other-regarding concern, but it is not often associated with sociality. Yet, negative other-regarding concerns (including schadenfreude, jealousy and fairness sensitivity) are likely to be just as important to human sociality because they may facilitate punishment. Like spite, punishment seems to be an unlikely candidate for social life, but without it, free-riders cause the demise of cooperation.
I use game theoretical approaches to test other-regarding preferences. I have been adapting economic games such as the ultimatum game and the third-party punishment game so that they can be applied to primates and young children. By comparing our closest living relatives with adult humans as well as children, I hope to gain further insights into what governs social decisions, how they evolve and how they develop.