Pat Barclay

I investigate costly cooperation and punishment within human groups, especially in social dilemmas such as the provision of public goods. I use an evolutionary psychological framework to generate hypotheses about altruism and human prosocial behavior. By using this approach, my research tries to understand when and why people help others, what design features in the brain promote altruistic behaviour, and what selective pressures could have resulted in the brain being designed this way. To do so, I typically use experimental cooperative games involving money (such as the well-known Prisoner's Dilemma and public goods games) where participants can make decisions that benefit themselves, others, or both. In addition, I use mathematical models (evolutionary game theory) to advance our theoretical understanding of cooperation. I have additional lines of research on risk-taking, inequality, the scale of competition within groups, and the effects acetaminophen on emotions.

Want a video? Here is my keynote talk at the University of Toronto in 2012, my talk at TEDxGuelphU 2017, or my 2026 interview on Evolutionary Psychology - The Podcast.

I am primarily using experimental games from experimental economics to investigate the following areas. In addition, I supplement these games with mathematical models from evolutionary game theory. Within the broad topic of cooperation, I am currently pursuing the following non-mutually exclusive lines of research:

Please e-mail me for a copy of any of these articles.

SELECTED THEORETICAL OR REVIEW ARTICLES

*Mishra, S., Barclay, P., & *Sparks. (2017). The relative state model: Integrating need-based and ability-based pathways to risk-taking. Personality and Social Psychological Review, 21(2), 176-198. [LINK]

Barclay, P. (2016). Biological markets and the effects of partner choice on cooperation and friendship. Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 33-38. [LINK]

Barclay, P. (2015). Reputation. In D. Buss (Ed.) Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (2^nd Ed.), pp. 818-828. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons.

Barclay, P., & Van Vugt, M. (2015). The evolutionary psychology of human prosociality: adaptations, mistakes, and byproducts. In D. Schroeder & W. Graziano (Eds.) Oxford Handbook of Prosocial Behavior, pp. 37-60. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Barclay, P. (2013). Strategies for cooperation in biological markets, especially for humans. Evolution & Human Behavior, 34(3), 164-175. [LINK]

Barclay, P. (2012). Harnessing the power of reputation: strengths and limits for promoting cooperative behaviours. Evolutionary Psychology, 10(5), 868-883. [LINK]

SELECTED EMPIRICAL PUBLICATIONS

*Pleasant, A., & Barclay, P. (in press). Mutual cooperation gives you a stake in your partner’s welfare – especially if they’re irreplaceable. Forthcoming in Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. [LINK]

Barclay, P., & Barker, J.L. (2020). Greener than thou: people who protect the environment are more cooperative, compete to be environmental, and benefit from reputation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 72, 101441. [LINK]

*Pleasant, A., & Barclay, P. (2018). Why hate the good guy? Antisocial punishment of high cooperators is higher when people compete to be chosen. Psychological Science, 29(6), 868-876. [LINK]

Barclay, P., & *Stoller, B. (2014). Local competition sparks concern for fairness in the ultimatum game. Biology Letters, 10, 20140213. [LINK]

Barclay, P., & Willer, R. (2007). Partner choice creates competitive altruism in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, 274, 749-753. [LINK]

Barclay, P. (2006). Reputational benefits for altruistic punishment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 325-344. [LINK]

Within psychology, I teach evolutionary psychology and a third-year discussion-based seminar that focuses on issues that apply to all of psychology (e.g., generalizability, applications, historical context).

In addition to teaching in Psychology, I am cross-appointed with the Bachelor of Arts & Science (BAS) program. In that program, I teach courses that bridge the arts, natural sciences, and social sciences. This includes teaching about critical thinking, the philosophy of science, and the sociology of science, as well as helping students to develop skills in writing, presenting, and searching academic literature.

I often have students involved in the research process. If you're interested in getting involved in research and doing a thesis or an independent study for credit, please send me an unofficial transcipt, resume/CV, statement of why you're interested in my lab's research, and a writing sample (e.g., from a course).

In June 2015, I was awarded the Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution by the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), which is the main academic society in evolutionary society. In 2022, I won an Ig Nobel Prize - fun times!