My more recent area of inquiry, looking broadly at how science was able to emerge: we often take it for granted now, but science is pretty weird, both from a psychological point of view (why would we be interested in these obscrure, non-fitness relevant topics?) and from a cultural evolution point of view (most of science is so boring! how did it manage to spread in culture?).

De Dampierre, & Mercier, H. The structure and evolution of scholarly interests from antiquity to the eighteenth century Scientometrics.

Mercier, M., Dubourg, E., & Mercier, H. Insight-seeking is consistent across domains and distinct from other forms of curiosity. Personality and Individual Differences.

Cologna, V. … Pfänder, J. & Mercier, H. … Zwann, R.   Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries. Nature Human Behavior.

Karabegović, M., Blatt, T., Boyer, P. & Mercier, H. Intuitive credit attribution and the priority rule. Philosophical Psychology.

Mercier, H. & Heintz, C.  Scientists’ argumentative reasoning. Thematic issue of Topoi.

Mercier, H. & Heintz, C.  The place of evolved cognition in scientific thinking. Religion, Brain and Behavior