Dr Adam Kenny

About
Adam is a quantitative anthropologist: he applies data science tools and open research practices to better understand human behaviour and its evolution. He convened under- and post-graduate courses in the human sciences at the University of Oxford, where he was Departmental Lecturer in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, and he taught data science skills across Oxford as a qualified data and software instructor. He holds a BA in Natural Sciences (University of Cambridge), MSc in Human Evolution and Behaviour (UCL), and a DPhil in Anthropology (University of Oxford), alongside a PGCE in Secondary Science.
News
Adam recently presented a talk on “Powering for cross-cultural variation” at the Quantitative Comparative Anthropology Workshop at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies.
Teaching
As Assistant Professor in Data Science, Adam mainly teaches quantitative methods at both under- and post-graduate levels. For example, he teaches statistics and programming in Python as module lead for the courses “Thinking Through Data” (BASc) and “Everything Counts” (MASc). He also delivers sessions on evolutionary anthropology and experimental methods; for example, he provides an evolutionary anthropology perspective on inequality, cooperation, and behavioural economic games.
Research
Adam’s research interests fall under the keywords "cooperation", "field experiments", and "group relations". A lot of his (ongoing) research takes place in the Italian city of Siena, where he collaborates with local neighbourhoods. He also promotes open research practices through the adoption of Registered Reports [insert url? https://www.cos.io/initiatives/registered-reports] as a publishing format.
Selected publications:
- Yang, X, Schulz, J, Schmidt, K, Kenny, AR, Pfuhl, G, Gjoneska B, Dalgar, I, Exner, A, Psychological Science Accelerator Collaborators, & Dunham, Y (2024). Large-scale cross-societal examination of real- and minimal-group biases (Registered Report Stage 1). Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5gpr4
- Kenny, AR, & Fortunato, L (2022). Group dynamics in the contrada communities of Siena, Italy. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/hxyvc
- Takács, K, Gross, J, Testori, M, Letina, S, Kenny, AR, Power, EA, & Wittek, RP (2021). Networks of reliable reputations and cooperation: a review. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 376(1838), 20200297. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0297
- Kenny, AR (2021). The importance of open research practices to empirical research in the evolutionary social sciences. Evolution and Human Behavior, 42(3), 268–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.02.008