Intellectual Merit

NSF has taken a lead in supporting basic an applied research into social behavior. And as the kinds of inquiries that NSF and other public and private institutions have supported have progressed and become more influential, there has been increasing interest in tying explanations of high-level social behaviors to more basic biological phenomena. Two focal classes of such phenomena are genes and cognition.

This proposal is dedicated to an assessment of such activities and of ways in which they can be supported and made more valuable in coming years. It proposes an interdisciplinary workshop to be held at NSF that will raise direct and important questions about whether and when the nation’s scientists and research institutions can use inquiries into relationships between genes, cognition, and social behavior to produce transformative scientific findings that are of great value to the nation.

The workshop’s preliminary objective will be to examine whether and how the nation can use investment in research on genes, cognition and social behavior to more effectively and efficiently accomplish socially valuable goals. The workshop’s main objective is to specify, as concretely as possible, how and where fundable research on genetics, cognition and social behavior will generate transformative scientific practices, scholarly infrastructure, and widely relevant findings of high social value.

Broader Impact

Across the nature and around the world, people are interacting with one another in new ways. Technological advances and changing economies of scale in fields such as transportation and communication mean that new opportunities for human cooperation and social development are quickly emerging. With these new opportunities come questions about the productive potential of new human institutions and the viability of existing institutions.

The effectiveness and efficiency of many activities in the public and private sectors will be affected by changing technologies and institutions. Hence, the nation has an interest in compiling a credible and rigorous understanding of the likely consequences of such changes. An essential ingredient in all such inquiries is a valid and reliable understanding of human social behaviors. As we compile knowledge of how basic attributes of perception, memory, and feeling correspond to higher-level human behaviors, we develop a stronger foundation for understanding individual and institutional capabilities in a quickly changing world.