Department of Sociology
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
Telephone: (510) 643-5444
Willer@berkeley.edu
I began as an Assistant Professor at University of California, Berkeley in the Fall of 2006. after receiving my Ph.D. (2006) and M.A. (2004) in Sociology from Cornell University. In my research I am interested in various fundamental research questions about society and interaction: How do groups successfully achieve collective action? How is masculinity enacted in everyday life? How do unpopular norms emerge and persist? Why are people altruistic? Is altruism contagious? My research is currently centered around two broad themes: (1) the foundations of basic human sociality, and, (2) the social psychology of political attitudes.
My research on human sociality is concerned with what factors are responsible for prosocial behaviors and sentiments (e.g. altruism, trust, collective action participation, reciprocity, prosocial norm enforcement), and how these behaviors and sentiments allow humans to sustain social order. How do status hierarchies and individuals' reputational concerns helps groups achieve collective action? How is it that humans achieve social order when evolutionary pressures appear to oppose cooperation and generosity? How is generalized exchange sustained in groups despite individuals' temptations to free-ride? I am working on a variety of interrelated empirical projects using diverse methodologies related to these questions.
In other research I am interested in what factors lead individuals to adopt liberal or conservative political attitudes. I have studied the interplay of masculinity, threat, and testosterone in political ideology, finding that men's maintenance of a masculine gender identity may lead to the adoption of certain political attitudes associated with masculinity (e.g. support for aggressive international policies). I have also investigated the effects of fear of terrorism and system instability on political conservatism in the contemporary United States.
I am affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley's Survey Research Center, the Institute for Personality and Social Research, the Institute of Business and Economic Research, and the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. I am also the Director of the Sociology Department's new Laboratory for Social Research, a member of the Greater Good Science Center's Executive Committee, and a member of the Cognitive Science faculty.
