I’m interested in an evolutionary approach to studying human morality and cooperation. I conduct some of my research among small-scale, pre-industrial populations: the Hadza hunter-gatherers, the Maasai pastoralists (northern Tanzania), and the Yali horticulturalists (New Guinea). One of my main interests concerns moral judgments of food wasting behaviours. As part of my PhD project, I am investigating the factors that cause some people (and even entire cultures) to treat food wastage as immoral behaviour. I am also interested in whether having harsh moral judgements about food wasting behaviour can actually affect the amount of wasted food.
I am passionate about popularising science with a general audience, both children and adults. From time to time you can hear me lecturing on some weird topics, e.g. on the psychology of a beer drinker, rappers’ self-presentation strategies or pseudoscience in psychology. Recently, I’ve also been organising workshops on food wastage—how are we doing it? What are the consequences for us and nature? Can anything be done about it?
In my free time I brew beer (although its main recipient is my sink and the municipal sewage system). I also love lifting barbells, and running around with my dog. When I’m travelling, I try to make sure to visit a local museum of natural history and take a picture with a dead dinosaur. I’m one of the few people in existence that believes pineapple pizza to be the crème de la crème of human culinary achievements.
My e-mail address: michal.misiak(<<at>>)uwr.edu.pl
