CEP alumnus Michael Barlev won the 2026 Don Symons Adaptationism Award from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.
The Don Symons Adaptationism Award is bestowed for the best paper exemplifying the adaptationist program.
Michael’s winning paper, with Steven Neuberg, is Rational Reasons for Irrational Beliefs
M. Barlev & S. Neuberg (2025) American Psychologist 80(1) 79-90.
Dr. Barlev is an evolutionary cognitive scientist interested in the psychology of beliefs. He asks questions such as:
What are beliefs? Why do some beliefs become culturally widespread? What roles do beliefs play in our private and social lives? How can we change problematic beliefs?
Combining foundational insights and tools from social psychology, computational cognitive science, adaptationist evolutionary biology, cultural evolution, and the humanities, he has studied religious beliefs, scientific beliefs, stereotypes and prejudices and more. Dr. Barlev is currently Research Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Arizona State University.
