John Orbell
Professor Emeritus

My earlier interests in cooperative behavior have morphed into an interest in evolutionary psychology and, in particular, the importance of frequent warfare during our ancient past for the evolution of various cognitive systems. With Oleg Smirnov (Political Science, Stony Brook), Holly Arrow (Psychology, UO) and Doug Kennett (Anthropology, UO), I have recently completed an evolutionary simulation asking how "heroism"--a willingness to die in warfare for one's group, tribe, polis, or country--might have evolved (Journal of Politics, November 2007). A current project with Tomonori Morikawa (Waseda University, Japan) extends this by content analyzing letters, poems, and wills of pilots who took part in Japan's Kamikaze campaign during the final ten months of World War II; we ask about proximate mechanisms that might prompt participation in such a campaign. This is approaching completion. With Misha Myagkov (Political Science, UO), I'm working on an NSF funded project that is investigating human sociality, in particular, the risky choice to become involved in cooperative relationships with other people.

With a group at the Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences (UO) I am working toward a major conference on "evolutionary perspectives on warfare" to be held at the University of Oregon in October of 2008. If you have any interest in this conference or the subject matter in general, please contact me or Warren Holmes at the Institute.

Curriculum Vitae