Sam Bowles

Sam Bowles is a Research Professor and Director of the Behavioral Sciences Program at the Santa Fe Institute. He also holds emeritus status and serves as an occasional lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the University of Siena. His work bridges economics, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and psychology to study societal evolution and human behavior.

Bowles' research centers on three interconnected themes:

• The long-term evolution of societal institutions (property rights, cooperation) and their impact on economic/political inequality.
• The coevolution of institutions and individual behaviors, emphasizing genetic/cultural roots of ethical preferences.
• Developing new economic paradigms to transform education and public discourse about the economy's role in the biosphere.

He employs diverse methodologies including agent-based modeling, machine learning, behavioral experiments, and multi-level selection frameworks.