Fanzheng Yang (pictured left) is a fourth-year PhD student studying experimental and behavioral economics. This summer she attended the 12th Trento Summer School: Evolution of Social Preferences in Italy.

What was the focus of the conference, and what did you learn? Drawing on one recent insight from biology, evolutionary psychology, moral philosophy, neuroscience and anthropology as well as experimental economics and institutional economics, the summer school traced the coevolution of moral sentiments, group norms and social institutions. So, from the intensive course, I learned how biological evolution shaped our capacities for moral sentiments, how cultural evolution gives content to other-regarding preferences, and how institutions and norms co-evolve.

What was one of the most interesting or unexpected things you gained from this experience? The participants in this summer school were students from many different backgrounds (from around 20 countries, and various majors including economics, psychology, philosophy, sociology, computer engineering, etc.) Hence, I was so happy to meet those new friends and learned a lot from them.

How will you use this in your graduate work? Now I'm doing some research to study different behavioral incentives in an experimental labor market. By considering the effects of social preferences, it's quite helpful to understand heterogeneous individual performance and self-selection under various monetary incentives.