The Cultural Evolution of Migration and Diversity

Keynote speaker for the WZB Annual Address on Migration and Diversity is Michael Muthukrishna,  Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics.

Over the past decades, a new field of cultural evolution has emerged. By integrating insights from evolutionary theory, anthropology, economics, sociology, and psychology, this interdisciplinary approach offers powerful tools for understanding how cultural traits emerge, spread, and adapt to changing social and environmental contexts. At the same time, work in cultural evolution has so far made only limited empirical connections to the social sciences. As a result, its potential impact remains underdeveloped, and many social scientists remain skeptical of its contributions. This conference aims to bridge this divide by bringing together cultural evolutionists willing to apply their theories to concrete empirical social-science questions and social scientists interested in exploring how evolutionary approaches can contribute to their own research.

For this edition, the topical focus will be on migration, acculturation and diversity. We aim to explore what new insights cultural evolution can offer into the social causes and consequences of these phenomena. Topics to be addressed may include innovation; acculturation and assimilation; ingroup–outgroup dynamics; social cohesion, cooperation, trust and the welfare state; group selection and competition; and, more generally, processes of cultural continuity and change. A central question is: What is the added value of a cultural-evolutionary approach compared to existing accounts of these phenomena in the social sciences?

Call for Papers

Submissions consisting of title and abstract (300-500 words) can be sent until 15 March 2026 to mad-office [at] wzb.eu. Decisions on acceptance will be communicated until 15 April. WZB will cover travel and accommodation costs for invited participants. We look forward to your submissions!