In my research I am investigating two deep problems: how do humans decide whether to cooperate across cultural boundaries, and why do people sacrifice everything (their own lives, the lives of loved ones) for an abstract cause like nation or god? These questions are related and may be seen as two sides of the same issue. To answer this question my co-workers and I do controlled psychological field experiments in places around the world - like Israel-Palestine, Lebanon, or Indonesia - that oscillate between extreme conflict and surprising cooperation. Understanding what feeds into cooperation between groups, and what causes people to kill and die for a cause may help us to adjudicate the pressing problems all humans have to deal with including maintaining a sustainable environment, protecting rights of the vulnerable, and reducing conflict.
