Garriy Shteynberg

In my scholarship, I have been captivated by one singular question: What are the psychological foundations of human relationships? That is, what sort of things are indispensable to the formation and function of human sociality?

In the last 15 years of empirical experimentation and theoretical integration, my research program has yielded promising insights. My colleagues and I have found that much of human psychology is devoted to tracking shared awareness—the perception that ‘we are aware’ of something together. Our research focuses on (1) how, (2) why, (3) when, and (4) to what end, shared awareness is tracked by the human mind. To the question of how shared awareness is tracked by the human mind, we find that people imagine what we call a ‘collective mind’ – a singular, unitary, collective agent – or, more simply, a ‘we’. To the question of why shared awareness is tracked by the human mind, we find that when people imagine a ‘collective mind’ they are more confident in their knowledge, enjoy stronger memory recall, as well as experience more extreme emotions and passions. To the question of when shared awareness is tracked by the human mind, we find that situations in which people experience information in synchrony are especially likely to yield the perception of a ‘collective mind’. Finally, to the question of to what end shared awareness is tracked by the human mind, we find that perceptions of ‘collective mind’ underpin social identity formation, affiliative bonding, relational trust, and ultimately, behavioral cooperation, even when it is individually risky.