Robert Boyd

43.9k total citations · 14 hit papers
129 papers, 23.6k citations indexed

About

Robert Boyd is a scholar working on Sociology and Political Science, Cultural Studies and Experimental and Cognitive Psychology. According to data from OpenAlex, Robert Boyd has authored 129 papers receiving a total of 23.6k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 88 papers in Sociology and Political Science, 48 papers in Cultural Studies and 32 papers in Experimental and Cognitive Psychology. Recurrent topics in Robert Boyd's work include Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (85 papers), Language and cultural evolution (48 papers) and Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (30 papers). Robert Boyd is often cited by papers focused on Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (85 papers), Language and cultural evolution (48 papers) and Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (30 papers). Robert Boyd collaborates with scholars based in United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Robert Boyd's co-authors include Peter J. Richerson, James R. Griesemer, Joseph Henrich, Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles, Richard McElreath, Ernst Fehr, Karthik Panchanathan, Joe Henrich and Colin Camerer and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In The Last Decade

Robert Boyd

124 papers receiving 21.5k citations

Hit Papers

Culture and the Evolutionary Process 1986 2026 1999 2012 1986 2004 2001 2003 2005 1000 2.0k 3.0k 4.0k
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. Culture and the Evolutionary Process
    1986 4.3k citations Robert Boyd, Peter J. Richerson et al. profile →
  2. Not By Genes Alone
    2004 1.8k citations Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd profile →
  3. In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies
    2001 1.5k citations Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles et al. profile →
  4. The evolution of altruistic punishment
    2003 1.1k citations Robert Boyd, Herbert Gintis et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →
  5. “Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies
    2005 1.1k citations Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles et al. profile →
  6. Punishment allows the evolution of cooperation (or anything else) in sizable groups
    1992 922 citations Robert Boyd, Peter J. Richerson profile →
  7. The Evolution of Conformist Transmission and the Emergence of Between-Group Differences
    1998 716 citations Robert Boyd et al. profile →
  8. The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation
    2011 712 citations Robert Boyd, Peter J. Richerson et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →
  9. Explaining altruistic behavior in humans
    2003 632 citations Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles et al. profile →
  10. Indirect reciprocity can stabilize cooperation without the second-order free rider problem
    2004 588 citations Karthik Panchanathan, Robert Boyd Nature profile →
  11. The evolution of reciprocity in sizable groups
    1988 518 citations Robert Boyd, Peter J. Richerson Journal of Theoretical Biology profile →
  12. Why Copy Others? Insights from the Social Learning Strategies Tournament
    2010 501 citations Robert Boyd et al. Science profile →
  13. Why People Punish Defectors
    2001 498 citations Robert Boyd et al. Journal of Theoretical Biology profile →
  14. Coordinated Punishment of Defectors Sustains Cooperation and Can Proliferate When Rare
    2010 418 citations Robert Boyd, Herbert Gintis et al. Science profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
Robert Boyd United States 55 14.9k 6.4k 5.1k 5.0k 4.3k 129 23.6k
Peter J. Richerson United States 55 11.2k 0.8× 3.5k 0.5× 3.8k 0.7× 4.2k 0.8× 4.0k 0.9× 178 19.7k
Joseph Henrich United States 75 16.6k 1.1× 6.4k 1.0× 6.8k 1.3× 11.6k 2.4× 3.2k 0.7× 163 33.0k
Richard McElreath United States 42 5.6k 0.4× 3.4k 0.5× 2.0k 0.4× 2.6k 0.5× 1.3k 0.3× 113 12.4k
Leda Cosmides United States 57 7.5k 0.5× 2.0k 0.3× 6.7k 1.3× 5.4k 1.1× 1.1k 0.3× 120 18.2k
Michael Gurven United States 61 5.5k 0.4× 2.5k 0.4× 5.1k 1.0× 3.4k 0.7× 445 0.1× 224 14.1k
Samuel Bowles United States 61 10.8k 0.7× 5.9k 0.9× 2.5k 0.5× 2.2k 0.4× 372 0.1× 195 20.0k
W D Hamilton United Kingdom 49 18.0k 1.2× 4.9k 0.8× 6.1k 1.2× 5.1k 1.0× 624 0.1× 98 47.9k
Herbert Gintis United States 52 10.1k 0.7× 5.4k 0.8× 2.4k 0.5× 1.9k 0.4× 355 0.1× 186 18.1k
John Tooby United States 54 6.7k 0.4× 1.6k 0.3× 6.0k 1.2× 4.9k 1.0× 912 0.2× 112 15.3k
Robin Dunbar United Kingdom 105 9.9k 0.7× 1.2k 0.2× 9.0k 1.8× 20.5k 4.1× 2.3k 0.5× 506 40.4k

Countries citing papers authored by Robert Boyd

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Robert Boyd's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Robert Boyd with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Robert Boyd more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Robert Boyd

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Robert Boyd. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Robert Boyd. The network helps show where Robert Boyd may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Robert Boyd

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Robert Boyd. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Robert Boyd based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Robert Boyd. Robert Boyd is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Derex, Maxime, Jean‐François Bonnefon, Robert Boyd, Richard McElreath, & Alex Mesoudi. (2025). Social learning preserves both useful and useless theories by canalizing learners’ exploration. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 292(2039). 20242499–20242499. 2 indexed citations
2.
Boyd, Robert & Peter J. Richerson. (2024). Cultural evolution: Where we have been and where we are going (maybe). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121(48). e2322879121–e2322879121. 4 indexed citations
3.
Richerson, Peter J., Robert Boyd, & Charles Efferson. (2023). Agentic processes in cultural evolution: relevance to Anthropocene sustainability. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 379(1893). 20220252–20220252. 8 indexed citations
4.
Mathew, Sarah, et al.. (2023). “Doing what others do” does not stabilize continuous norms. PNAS Nexus. 2(3). pgad054–pgad054. 5 indexed citations
5.
Harris, Jacob A., Robert Boyd, & Brian M. Wood. (2021). The role of causal knowledge in the evolution of traditional technology. Current Biology. 31(8). 1798–1803.e3. 29 indexed citations
6.
Boyd, Robert & Sarah Mathew. (2021). Arbitration supports reciprocity when there are frequent perception errors. Nature Human Behaviour. 5(5). 596–603. 17 indexed citations
7.
Richerson, Peter J. & Robert Boyd. (2020). The human life history is adapted to exploit the adaptive advantages of culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 375(1803). 20190498–20190498. 33 indexed citations
8.
Derex, Maxime & Robert Boyd. (2018). Social information can potentiate understanding despite inhibiting cognitive effort. Scientific Reports. 8(1). 9980–9980. 8 indexed citations
9.
Boyd, Robert. (2016). The Evolution of Human Uniqueness. The Spanish Journal of Psychology. 19. E97–E97. 1 indexed citations
10.
Derex, Maxime & Robert Boyd. (2015). The foundations of the human cultural niche. Nature Communications. 6(1). 8398–8398. 60 indexed citations
11.
Boyd, Robert, Herbert Gintis, & Samuel Bowles. (2010). Coordinated Punishment of Defectors Sustains Cooperation and Can Proliferate When Rare. Science. 328(5978). 617–620. 418 indexed citations breakdown →
12.
Richerson, Peter J., Robert Boyd, & Robert L. Bettinger. (2009). Cultural Innovations and Demographic Change. Human Biology. 81(2-3). 211–235. 103 indexed citations
13.
Boyd, Robert & Peter J. Richerson. (2008). Voting with your feet: Payoff biased migration and the evolution of group beneficial behavior. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 257(2). 331–339. 86 indexed citations
14.
Boyd, Robert, et al.. (2006). Evolutionary dynamics of the continuous iterated Prisoner's dilemma. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 245(2). 258–267. 50 indexed citations
15.
Panchanathan, Karthik & Robert Boyd. (2004). Indirect reciprocity can stabilize cooperation without the second-order free rider problem. Nature. 432(7016). 499–502. 588 indexed citations breakdown →
16.
Boyd, Robert. (2003). John Herbert Beynon. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. 18(1). 1–6. 30 indexed citations
17.
Richerson, Peter J. & Robert Boyd. (1999). Complex societies. Human Nature. 10(3). 253–289. 155 indexed citations
18.
Boyd, Robert. (1994). Pacific Northwest Measles Epidemic of 1847-1848. Oregon Historical Quarterly. 95(1). 6–47. 1 indexed citations
19.
Boyd, Robert & Peter J. Richerson. (1990). Group selection among alternative evolutionarily stable strategies. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 145(3). 331–342. 194 indexed citations
20.
Boyd, Robert & Peter J. Richerson. (1988). The evolution of reciprocity in sizable groups. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 132(3). 337–356. 518 indexed citations breakdown →

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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