Human flourishing is a complex topic that is not completely covered by any traditional academic domain. A new project is conducting a systematic analysis of human flourishing literature and will produce a report about the state of the field and key clusters within it.

A novel intervention program synthesizes research on prejudice reduction, experiential design, and affective science into effective diversity interventions meant to aid reduction of social inequality. A multidisciplinary team has created cinematic-quality films where people with marginalized identities share their experiences with social exclusion. The program combines engaged viewing of these films with exercises designed to develop a nuanced and specific understanding of the emotional experiences of other individuals in a potentially polarizing context.

PhyloPsy is a new networking tool for cognition researchers in comparative psychology to share experiments, data, and conclusions across institutions and species. This project will launch the tool into the community. It also aims to jumpstart collaborations with experiments designed to test ideas about the emergence of novel cognitive abilities of animals with different brain structures and varying levels of domestication.

New research hypothesizes that the decision to cooperate or to compete is arrived at similarly in humans and chimpanzees, and can be replicated by Artificial Intelligence. To test this, researchers will conduct experiments related to foraging tasks for these three very different types of actors in a simulated forest VR environment.

In a new TWCF-funded study, hummingbirds, which are vertebrates, and bees, which are invertebrates, will be given equivalent foraging challenges. The research will explore how the spatial intelligences and information-processing of these two types of brain structures compare.