Two faculty members from the Research Center for Social Complexity (CICS in Spanish), from Universidad del Desarrollo’s Faculty of Government presented their work at this years’ Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) Annual Conference. The 26^th annual conference focused on Evolution, Society and Culture.

Carlos Rodríguez-Sickert, director of Universidad del Desarrollo’s doctoral program in Social Complexity Science and co director of CICS, and María Ignacia Rivera, assistant researcher in Chile’s National Commission on Science and Technology (CONICYT in Spanish), Proyecto Anillo in Social Complexity, were selected to participate in the conference.

Rodríguez’s presentation was based on his work with artisanal fishermen from various sites along Chile’s central coast –La Boca de Navidad, Maitencillo, El Quisco and Las Cruces. Rodríguez observed their behaviors with regards to the extraction of scarce resources which also held economical value, such as abalone (Concholepa concholepas). The objective of his research was to present the social dilemmas that these fishermen face in their decision making processes, on a daily basis.

Rivera presented a poster about the association between some genetic variants, behaviors and decision making processes of artisanal fishermen when cooperation was needed between them so as not to fully exploit a resource that benefits them all.

The Human Behavior and Evolution Society brings together all those who study human behavioral evolution. The scientific perspectives within this society range from psychology and evolutionary anthropology to cultural evolution. Members of this society belong to a broad range of social and biological sciences and they come from all over the globe.

The HBES annual conference aims at presenting and contributing further knowledge to current research and includes presentations by leading scientists in the field. This years’ conference took place in Natal, Brazil, from July 30^th to August 2^nd.

Download the CICS’s poster presented at the HBES Conference