Dr. Nathan Oesch

Nathan Oesch

Research Associate
Anthropology (Sleep and Human Evolution Lab)

As an evolutionary psychologist, my work focuses primarily on the origin and evolution of human intelligence; in particular, the evolution and biological function of human language. Broadly speaking, I'm interested in understanding why language is unique to humans, using theories and methods based in social psychology, anthropology, conversational dialogue, and social network analysis. More specifically, recent work has been investigating information and disinformation transmission, social bonding, coalitionary cognition, and mental immunity against disinformation.

Education
DPhil, Experimental Psychology (2017, University of Oxford)
MSc, Evolution of Language and Cognition (2006, University of Edinburgh)
BA, Psychology, Philosophy, and Evolutionary Biology (2000, University of Tennessee)

Publications

Oesch, N. Social brain perspectives on the social and evolutionary neuroscience of human language. Brain Sci. (2024), 13, 1-28.

Oesch, N. Social brain hypothesis. In H. Callan (Ed.), International encyclopedia of anthropology (2018), (pp. 1-11). New York: John Wiley.

Other

Specialization
evolution of intelligence; social cognitive neuroscience; evolution of language; conversational dialogue; social network analysis; evolutionary linguistics; evolutionary musicology; disinformation; mental immunity