Centre for Cultural Evolution and Historical Psychology
Understanding How the Past Shapes the Human Mind
An international, cross university research network bringing together psychology, cultural evolution, computational social science, and the humanities.
About CEHP
A New Framework for Psychology
Cross cultural research has illuminated vast global variation in cognition, emotion, and behaviour but the origins of this variation remain poorly understood. Cultural psychologists have traditionally studied psychology within a limited temporal scope.
CEHP was founded to address this gap. We bring together researchers from psychology, cultural evolution, computational social science, history, and the humanities each contributing distinct tools, from large scale text analysis to historical databases to dynamical modelling.
Why Historical Psychology
Studying the Past to Understand the Present
Psychology has traditionally studied human behaviour within narrow time windows. But cultural evolutionary processes institutional change, ecological pressures, shifting social structures have shaped human norms, cognition, and behaviour over centuries.
Understanding psychological diversity requires looking further back in time. This emerging field demands collaboration across disciplines: cultural evolution, computational social science, complexity science, history, and the humanities.
- Observe Variation
- Trace Historical Processes
- Explain Diversity
Research
Core Research Themes
Psychological Temporal Variation
Empirical study of how cognition, emotion, and social behaviour have changed across historical periods and cultures.
Historical Data Methods
Develops methods to analyze historical sources, extracting reliable psychological insights from complex, incomplete records.
Text & Corpus Analysis
This theme uses large scale textual datasets to analyze language, narratives, and cultural patterns over time.
Methodological Validity Across Time
Establishing gold standard methodologies for comparing psychological constructs across different historical eras.
Cultural Evolutionary Processes
Tracing how norms, institutions, and ecological pressures shape and transmit psychological traits over generations.
Our Team
Organizers
CEHP brings together esearchers across multiple institutions, supported by an international advisory board.
Events & Talks
Join Our Regular Talk Series
CEHP hosts a regular virtual talk series featuring established and early career researchers working at the intersection of cultural evolution, historical data, and psychology. We also offer a visiting fellowship programme hosted at the University of Zurich.
It provides collaborative research opportunities, academic networking, interdisciplinary exchange, and support for innovative projects in human behavioral studies.
Join the Network
Become Part of CEHP
Whether you are a researcher, an early career scholar, or simply interested in the intersection of history and psychology there are multiple ways to engage with the CEHP community.
Join Mailing List
Stay updated on talks, publications, and network news.
Become an Affiliate
Join as an affiliated researcher and contribute to our network.
Propose a Talk
Submit a proposal to present in our virtual talk series.