Acting
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Emory broadly interested in the evolution of primate social cognition, the mechanisms that influence social choices, and the context in which these decisions are adaptive. As a primatologist, my work unpacks both proximate and ultimate mechanisms of social decision-making in primates, offering a promising avenue for understanding the importance of sociality, cooperation, and conflict on primate cognitive evolution. I co-direct a long-term field project, Capuchins de Taboga, on the cognition and behavior of wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica and continue my affiliation at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University where I study the mechanisms of social choices in captive tufted capuchins (Sapajus apella). -- Dr. Marcela E. Benítez