David G. Rand

David G. Rand is a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University whose work on Evolutionary Dynamics has been featured on the front covers of both Nature and Science and reported widely in the media.

The evolution of human behavior is the main focus of his work, with a particular emphasis on cooperation, generosity and altruism. His approach combines (i) empirical observations from behavioral experiments with (ii) predictions generated by evolutionary game theoretic math models and computer simulations. ^[1]

Biography

Rand earned his Ph.D., Harvard University in Systems Biology in 2009 ^[2] and a B.A. from Cornell University summa cum laude in Computational Biology.

He also has a band called Robot Goes Here.

Publications

Rand's publications include:

• Fudenberg Rand Dreber (2011) Slow to anger and fast to forgive: cooperation in an uncertain world. American economic review. This work showed, using behavioral experiments, that in repeated games with noise it is self-interested to be both lenient and forgiving.^[3].
• Rand et al. (2009) Positive interactions promote public cooperation. Science 325, 1272-1275. This work showed that rewards are as effective as punishments for promoting group cooperation in repeated interactions, and lead to better overall outcomes. It was featured on the cover of Science and also reported in New Scientist,^[4] MSN,^[5] Forbes,^[6] Discover Magazine and other media.
• Rand et al. (2009) Dynamic remodeling of in-group bias during the 2008 presidential election. PNAS 106 6187-6191. This work showed that during the 2008 US presidential election, Obama and Clinton supports were more generous with supporters of their own preferred candidate, but that this bias disappeared following the DNC's symbolic emphasis on party unity. It was picked up by the Huffington Post.^[7]
• Dreber, Rand et al. (2008) Winners don't punish. Nature 452 348-351. This work showed that subjects who spitefully punished uncooperative partners did poorly, while successful players instead reciprocated un-cooperativeness with un-cooperativeness. It was featured on the cover of Nature and also reported in the Daily Telegraph,^[8] New York Times Freakanomics,^[9] Boston Globe and other media
• Rand & Nowak (2009) How reputation could save the Earth. New Scientist 2734 28-29.

Notes and references

1. ^ David G Rand's Harvard website
2. ^ David G Rand CV at Harvard
3. ^ http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1616396
4. ^ Carrots are better than Sticks New Scientist 3-Sept-09
5. ^ Rewards and key to cooperation MSN 3-Sept-09
6. ^ Rewards and key to cooperation Forbes 3-Sept-09
7. ^ Study Finds Bias in 2008 Campaign -- Among Men Only Huffington Post 30-Mar-09
8. ^ Those who Resort to Punishment are Losers Daily Telegraph 19 Mar 2008
9. ^ Freakanomics blog in New York Times 21-Mar-08

External links

• Website at Harvard

Persondata
Name	Rand, David G
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1982
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death