Leda Cosmides, (born May 7, 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American psychologist, who, together with anthropologist husband John Tooby, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology.

Cosmides originally studied biology at Harvard University, receiving her A.B. in 1979. While an undergraduate she was influenced by the pioneering evolutionary biologist Robert L. Trivers who was her advisor. In 1985 Cosmides received a Ph.D in cognitive psychology (also from Harvard). After completing postdoctoral work under Roger Shepard at Stanford University, Cosmides joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1991, becoming a full professor in 2000.

In 1992, together with John Tooby and Jerome Barkow, Cosmides edited The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. She and Tooby also co-founded and co-direct the Center for Evolutionary Psychology.

Cosmides was awarded the 1988 American Association for the Advancement of Science Prize for Behavioral Science Research, the 1993 American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology, a J. S. Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and the 2005 NIH Director's Pioneer Award.

Selected publications

• Barkow, J., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J., (eds) (1992) The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (New York: Oxford University Press).
• Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2000) Evolutionary psychology: Foundational papers (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
• Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (in press) Universal Minds: Explaining the new science of evolutionary psychology (Darwinism Today Series) (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson).

Papers

• Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (1987) "From evolution to behavior: Evolutionary psychology as the missing link" in J. Dupre (Ed.), The latest on the best: Essays on evolution and optimality. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
• Cosmides, L. (1989) "The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task," Cognition, 31, 187-276.
• Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (1992) "Cognitive adaptations for social exchange," in J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (New York: Oxford University Press).
• Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2003) "Evolutionary psychology: Theoretical Foundations," in Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (London: Macmillan).
• Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2005) "Evolutionary psychology: Conceptual foundations," in D. M. Buss (ed.), Evolutionary Psychology Handbook (New York: Wiley).

See also

• Behavioural genetics
• Evolutionary psychology
• Human behavioral ecology

External links

• Leda Cosmides's Website
  • Detailed CV
• Center for Evolutionary Psychology
• Full publication list with full text access

Articles and interviews

• "Whole in one" - profile by Kam Patel, originally published in The Times Higher Education Supplement, August 1995.
• Interview by Alvaro Fischer and Roberto Araya, published in El Mercurio, October 28, 2001.
• "Them" - article on Cosmides, Tooby and Kurzban's research into the origin of racism, The Economist, December 13, 2001.

Media

• "Evolution of the Human Mind" radio interview, Philosophy Talk, May 24, 2005.

American psychologists | 1957 births | Living people | Greek-Americans

Leda Cosmides