Hillary Lenfesty

Hillary Lenfesty is an Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University, affiliated with the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the Institute of Human Origins. Her research focuses on the evolutionary origins of religion, morality, and cooperation, employing interdisciplinary approaches from anthropology, cognitive science, and evolutionary biology.

Her work explores mechanisms such as third-party arbitration, prestige systems, and neurobiological factors influencing cooperative behavior. Recent studies include modeling cooperation under perception errors and analyzing the autonomic nervous system’s role in religious prosociality.

Key contributions address cross-cultural moral decision-making, the philosophical implications of evolutionary religion theories, and the development of computational tools for studying social dynamics. Her research bridges evolutionary science, theology, and cognitive psychology, challenging traditional paradigms in understanding human sociality.