Andrew Delton

About

Andrew Delton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University. He holds a PhD in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on evolution, psychology, and politics, aiming to uncover the psychological mechanisms that enable humans to live as cooperative and moral species. His work includes studying generosity, social dilemmas, personality, and emotions such as anger, compassion, shame, and gratitude. Delton views human psychology as a series of information-processing systems designed to solve important ancestral problems. His research also seeks to understand how evolved psychological processes influence political thought, including voting behavior, partisanship, and public goods. He is working on a forthcoming book about the politics of climate change and is interested in how psychological evolution shapes liberalism, rights, and toleration. Delton employs various methods, particularly experimental economic games, to explore these topics and has contributed to the field through numerous publications.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Psychology
• Economics
• Law
• Social psychology
• Sociology
• Microeconomics
• Risk analysis (engineering)
• Positive economics
• Ecology

Selected publications

• The psychology of deterrence explains why group membership matters for third-party punishment

  Evolution and Human Behavior · 2017-07-26 · 107 citations

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• The true trigger of shame: social devaluation is sufficient, wrongdoing is unnecessary

  Evolution and Human Behavior · 2018-06-01 · 79 citations

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• Moral Obstinacy in Political Negotiations

  Political Psychology · 2019-07-28 · 72 citations

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  Research in behavioral economics finds that moral considerations bear on the offers that people make and accept in negotiations. This finding is relevant for political negotiations, wherein moral concerns are manifold. However, behavioral economics has yet to incorporate a major theme from moral psychology: People differ, sometimes immensely, in which issues they perceive to be a matter of morality. We review research about the measurement and characteristics of moral convictions. We hypothesize…

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• The ecological rationality of helping others: Potential helpers integrate cues of recipients' need and willingness to sacrifice

  Evolution and Human Behavior · 2018-07-23 · 45 citations

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• High-risk high-reward investments to mitigate climate change

  Nature Climate Change · 2018-08-29 · 43 citations

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Frequent coauthors

• Theresa E. Robertson

  Nottingham Trent University

  30 shared

• Leda Cosmides

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  17 shared

• John Tooby

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  15 shared

• Max M. Krasnow

  Harvard University

  14 shared

• Talbot M. Andrews

  University of Connecticut

  8 shared

• Reuben Kline

  8 shared

• Vladas Griskevicius

  University of Minnesota

  7 shared

• Joshua M. Tybur

  Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  7 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of California, Santa Barbara

Similar researchers at Stony Brook University

• Stanley Feldmanh-48
• Leonie Huddyh-44
• Wei Zhongh-41