Overview
Wen Zhou is an assistant professor of Evolutionary Anthropology. She holds a secondary appointment with the department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke university. Professor Zhou aims to understand what it means to be a human and the moral status a human is believed to deserve. Her current projects focus on dehumanization and its developmental origins. Her work also involves research on social hierarchy, human-animal relations and conservation, deploying an interdisciplinary approach drawn from social and developmental psychology. She joined the faculty of Duke Kunshan University in 2022 after obtaining her Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology from Duke University.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University
·
2022 - Present
DKU Faculty
Research Scholar in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology
·
2023 - Present
Evolutionary Anthropology,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Publications
Tolerance as a key mechanism for large-scale social cohesion.
Journal Article The Behavioral and brain sciences · November 2025 Grooming and cognition support primate group cohesion but are insufficient for maintaining stability in large groups. We propose tolerance, the capacity to accommodate social stress, as an additional mechanism. Tolerance fosters flexible social skills and ... Full text CiteSchadenfreude or empathy? Children's emotional responses to the physical pain and pleasure of prosocial and antisocial others.
Journal Article Journal of experimental child psychology · September 2024 Adults' emotional reactions to the pain and pleasure of others are influenced by the moral character of those individuals. However, it remains unclear whether children's emotional responses also show such selectivity. To investigate this, we compared 4- to ... Full text CiteHumanizing animals does not reduce blatant dehumanization by children or adults
Journal Article Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology · January 1, 2024 Blatantly likening humans to animals is associated with discrimination and hostility. The power of dehumanizing animal metaphors is thought to lie in the belief that animals are inferior to humans and do not deserve full moral concern. Previous work sugges ... Full text Open Access CiteEducation, Training & Certifications
Duke University ·
2022
Ph.D.