Scott Atran
Adjunct Research Scientist, RCGD
Adjunct Research Professor, Ford School Of Public Policy
- satran@umich.edu
- 734-764-8360
- 5238 ISR
BIO
Scott Atran's research and teaching interests revolve around cognitive and linguistic anthropology, ethnobiology, environmental decision making, categorization and reasoning, evolutionary psychology, anthropology of science (history and philosophy of natural history and natural philosophy). He is also interested in Middle East ethnography and political economy, natural history of Lowland Maya, cognitive and commitment theories of religion, and terrorism and foreign affairs. Dr. Atran also serves as Directeur de Recherche, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
- Atran, Scott. 2019. "The Crisis of Cultures and the Vitality of Values: A Commentary on Emmanuel Macron's Declaration of the Need for Religion." New England Journal of Public Policy 31(1).
- Atran, Scott. 2019. "Superior or inferior, human uniqueness is manifold." Animal Sentience 3(23).
- Pretus, Clara, Scott Atran, Nafees Hamid, Hammad Sheikh, Ángel Gómez, Jeremy Ginges, Adolf Tobeña, Richard Davis, an, et al. 2019. "Ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal interactions underlie will to fight and die for a cause." Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 14(6): 569-577.
- Hamid, Nafees, Scott Atran, Clara Pretus, Molly J. Crockett, Jeremy Ginges, Hammad Sheikh, Adolf Tobeña, Susanna Carmona, et al. 2019. "Neuroimaging 'will to fight' for sacred values: an empirical case study with supporters of an Al Qaeda associate." Royal Society Open Science 6(6).
- Pretus, Clara, Nafees Hamid, Hammad Sheikh, Jeremy Ginges, Adolf Tobeña, Richard Davis, Oscar Vilarroya, and Scott Atran. 2018. "Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Sacred Values and Vulnerability to Violent Extremism." Frontiers in Psychology 9.
- Atran, Scott, Robert Axelrod, Richard Davis, and Baruch Fischhoff. 2017. "Challenges in researching terrorism from the field." Science 355(6323): 352-354.
- Gómez, Ángel, Scott Atran, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Hammad Sheikh, Jeremy Ginges, Lydia Wilson, Hoshang Waziri, Alexandra Vázquez, an, et al. 2017. "The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict." Nature Human Behaviour 1(9): 673-679.
- Atran, Scott. 2016. "The Devoted Actor: Unconditional Commitment and Intractable Conflict across Cultures." Current Anthropology 57(S13): S192-S203.
- Sheikh, Hammad, Ángel Gómez, and Scott Atran. 2016. "Empirical Evidence for the Devoted Actor Model." Current Anthropology 57(S13): S204-S209.
- Ginges, Jeremy, Hammad Sheikh, Scott Atran, and Nichole Argo. 2016. "Thinking from God's perspective decreases biased valuation of the life of a nonbeliever." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(2): 316-319.
- Atran, Scott. 2016. "Moralizing religions: Prosocial or a privilege of wealth?" Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39.
- Atran, Scott, and Jeremy Ginges. 2015. "Devoted actors and the moral foundations of intractable intergroup conflict." in The Moral Brain: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, edited by Decety, Jean, Wheatley, Thalia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Atran, Scott, and Hammad Sheikh. 2015. "Dangerous Terrorists as Devoted Actors." Pp. 401-416 in Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology, Springer.
- Atran, Scott, Hammad Sheikh, and Angel Gomez. 2014. "Devoted actors sacrifice for close comrades and sacred cause." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(50): 17702-17703.
- Atran, Scott. 2014. "Martyrdom's would-be myth buster." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37(4): 362-363.
- Atran, Scott, Hammad Sheikh, and Angel Gomez. 2014. "For Cause and Comrade: Devoted Actors and Willingness to Fight." Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution 5(1).
- Sheikh, Hammad, Scott Atran, Jeremy Ginges, Lydia Wilson, Nadine Obeid, and Richard Davis. 2014. "The Devoted Actor as Parochial Altruist: Sectarian Morality, Identity Fusion, and Support for Costly Sacrifices." Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution 5(1).
- le Guen, Olivier, Rumen Iliev, Ximena Lois, Scott Atran, and Douglas L. Medin. 2013. "A garden experiment revisited: inter-generational change in environmental perception and management of the Maya Lowlands, Guatemala." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 19(4): 771-794.
- Sheikh, Hammad, Jeremy Ginges, and Scott Atran. 2013. "Sacred values in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: resistance to social influence, temporal discounting, and exit strategies." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1299(1): 11-24.
- Atran, Scott. 2013. "From mutualism to moral transcendence." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(1): 81-82.
- Atran, Scott, and Jeremy Ginges. 2012. "Religious and Sacred Imperatives in Human Conflict." Science 336(6083): 855-857.
- Atran, Scott. 2012. "Parasite stress is not so critical to the history of religions or major modern group formations." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35(2): 79-80.
- Berns, Gregory S., and Scott Atran. 2012. "The biology of cultural conflict." Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 367(1589): 633-639.
- Berns, Gregory S., Emily Bell, C. Monica Capra, Michael J. Prietula, Sara Moore, Brittany Anderson, Jeremy Ginges, and Scott Atran. 2012. "The price of your soul: neural evidence for the non-utilitarian representation of sacred values." Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 367(1589): 754-762.
- Sheikh, Hammad, Jeremy Ginges, Alin Coman, and Scott Atran. 2012. "Religion, group threat and sacred values." Judgment and Decision Making 7(2): 110.
- Blumstein, Daniel T., Scott Atran, Scott Field, Michael Hochberg, Dominic Johnson, Raphael Sagarin, Richard Sosis, Bradley Thayer, et al. 2012. "The Peacock's Tale: Lessons from Evolution for Effective Signaling in International Politics." Cliodynamics: The Journal of Theoretical and Mathematical History 3(1): 192-214.
- Ginges, Jeremy, and Scott Atran. 2011. "War as a moral imperative (not just practical politics by other means)." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 278(1720): 2930-2938.
- Ginges, Jeremy, Scott Atran, Sonya Sachdeva, and Douglas Medin. 2011. "Psychology out of the laboratory: the challenge of violent extremism." American Psychologist 66(6): 507.
