Research Interests


Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology


I am studying psychological adaptations for processing ethnic and coalitional social categories. These are some of the questions I am addressing through cross-cultural research in the United States and amongst agro-pastoralists in the Peruvian altiplano.

Cristina Moya

UCLA Anthropology Dept

341 Haines Hall

Los Angeles, CA. 90095

cmoya [at] ucla.edu

How do children learn which social categories are useful basis for making prediction?


Which social stereotypes are humans prone to form?


What are the functions of social group inductive reasoning and assortment?


Are humans prone to essentialize certain social categories?