Most cited papers in Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
What are the most cited papers in Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior?
The most cited paper in Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior is "The Evolution of Cooperation" (Robert Axelrod, William D. O. Hamilton, 1981), with 20,368 citations. Next come "The weirdest people in the world?" (12,508) and "Parental Investment and Sexual Selection" (9,562).
Showing 50 of 100 papers. Every paper with more than 1,440 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Evolution of Cooperation Robert Axelrod, William D. O. Hamilton · Science | 27 Mar 1981 | 20,368 |
| 2 | The weirdest people in the world? Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine, Ara Norenzayan · Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Jun 2010 | 12,508 |
| 3 | Parental Investment and Sexual Selection Robert L. Trivers | 12 Jul 2017 | 9,562 |
| 4 | The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme Stephen Jay Gould, Richard C Lewontin · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences | 21 Sep 1979 | 7,845 |
| 5 | Personality Structure: Emergence of the Five-Factor Model John M. Digman · Annual Review of Psychology | 1990 | 6,515 |
| 6 | Ecology, Sexual Selection, and the Evolution of Mating Systems Stephen T. Emlen, Lewis W. Oring · Science | 15 Jul 1977 | 6,316 |
| 7 | Altruistic punishment in humans Ernst Fehr, Simon Gächter · Nature | 2002 | 5,714 |
| 8 | Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women's Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks Barbara L. Fredrickson, Tomi‐Ann Roberts · Psychology of Women Quarterly | Jun 1997 | 5,495 |
| 9 | Mate selection—A selection for a handicap Amotz Avishag Zahavi · Journal of Theoretical Biology | Sep 1975 | 5,378 |
| 10 | Dimensions of Brand Personality Jennifer Lynn Aaker · Journal of Marketing Research | Aug 1997 | 4,715 |
| 11 | Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence Susan T. Fiske, Amy J. C. Cuddy, Peter Glick · Trends in Cognitive Sciences | 23 Dec 2006 | 4,618 |
| 12 | Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures David Michael Buss · Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Mar 1989 | 4,529 |
| 13 | Sexual Strategies Theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. David Michael Buss, David P. Schmitt · Psychological Review | 1993 | 4,288 |
| 14 | Parent-Offspring Conflict Robert L. Trivers · American Zoologist | Feb 1974 | 4,217 |
| 15 | Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases Stephanie Delphine Preston, Frans Β. Μ. de Waal · Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Feb 2002 | 4,155 |
| 16 | On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. Nicholas Epley, Adam G. Waytz, John T. Cacioppo · Psychological Review | 2007 | 3,998 |
| 17 | Construction and Validation of a Scale to Measure Celebrity Endorsers' Perceived Expertise, Trustworthiness, and Attractiveness Roobina Ohanian · Journal of Advertising | Oct 1990 | 3,983 |
| 18 | Natural Selection of Parental Ability to Vary the Sex Ratio of Offspring Robert L. Trivers, Dan E. Willard · Science | 5 Jan 1973 | 3,886 |
| 19 | Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Sandra Lipsitz Bem · Psychological Review | 1981 | 3,862 |
| 20 | Extraordinary Sex Ratios William D. O. Hamilton · Science | 28 Apr 1967 | 3,722 |
| 21 | Oxytocin increases trust in humans Michael Kosfeld, Markus L Heinrichs, Paul J. Zak et al. · Nature | Jun 2005 | 3,705 |
| 22 | The NimStim set of facial expressions: Judgments from untrained research participants Nim Tottenham, James W. Tanaka, Andrew C. Leon et al. · Psychiatry Research | 29 Jun 2009 | 3,547 |
| 23 | Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Nancy L. Collins, Stephen John Read · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 1990 | 3,540 |
| 24 | Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Shelley E. Taylor, Laura Cousino Klein, Brian P. Lewis et al. · Psychological Review | 2000 | 3,319 |
| 25 | Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions Peter J. Lang, Mark K. Greenwald, Margaret M. Bradley et al. · Psychophysiology | May 1993 | 3,228 |
| 26 | Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: Robust and surprising findings. Paul T. Costa, Antonio Terracciano, Robert R. McCrae · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | Aug 2001 | 2,997 |
| 27 | Processing Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure: Is Beauty in the Perceiver's Processing Experience? Rolf Reber, Norbert Schwarz, Piotr Winkielman · Personality and Social Psychology Review | Nov 2004 | 2,922 |
| 28 | Evolution of indirect reciprocity Martin A. Nowak, Karl Sigmund · Nature | Oct 2005 | 2,832 |
| 29 | Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. John A. Bargh, Mark I-Cheng Chen, Lara J. Burrows · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 1996 | 2,654 |
| 30 | Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy Frans Β. Μ. de Waal · Annual Review of Psychology | 21 Dec 2007 | 2,515 |
| 31 | The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task Leda Cosmides · Cognition | Apr 1989 | 2,490 |
| 32 | The evolution of life histories Jesús Alberto León · Trends in Ecology & Evolution | Nov 1993 | 2,487 |
| 33 | Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men Cult Rodhom, E. C. Tolman · The American Journal of Psychology | Apr 1950 | 2,471 |
| 34 | Cognitive Adaptations for Social Exchange Leda Cosmides, John Tooby | 6 Aug 1992 | 2,425 |
| 35 | Facial expression and emotion. Paul Ekman · American Psychologist | 1993 | 2,420 |
| 36 | Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans Robin Dunbar · Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Dec 1993 | 2,378 |
| 37 | Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Judith H. Langlois, Lisa Kalakanis, Adam J. Rubenstein et al. · Psychological Bulletin | 2000 | 2,354 |
| 38 | First Impressions Janine Willis, Alexander T. Todorov · Psychological Science | Jul 2006 | 2,327 |
| 39 | Data Collection in a Flat World: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Mechanical Turk Samples Joseph K. Goodman, Cynthia E. Cryder, Amar Cheema · Journal of Behavioral Decision Making | 2 Apr 2012 | 2,308 |
| 40 | A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Robert Raskin, Howard Terry · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 1988 | 2,271 |
| 41 | Gender differences in personality: A meta-analysis. Alan Feingold · Psychological Bulletin | 1994 | 2,220 |
| 42 | Empirical, Theoretical, and Practical Advantages of the HEXACO Model of Personality Structure Michael C. Ashton, Kibeom Lee · Personality and Social Psychology Review | May 2007 | 2,200 |
| 43 | The many faces of configural processing Daphne M. Maurer, Richard Le Grand, Catherine J. Mondloch · Trends in Cognitive Sciences | Jun 2002 | 2,158 |
| 44 | The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson · Human Communication Research | 9 Jun 2007 | 2,114 |
| 45 | Social support and oxytocin interact to suppress cortisol and subjective responses to psychosocial stress Markus L Heinrichs, Thomas Ivar Baumgartner, Clemens Kirschbaum et al. · Biological Psychiatry | 17 Oct 2003 | 2,109 |
| 46 | The dirty dozen: A concise measure of the dark triad. Peter Karl Jonason, Gregory D. Webster · Psychological Assessment | Jun 2010 | 2,097 |
| 47 | Behavioral Syndromes: An Integrative Overview Andrew Sih, Alison M. Bell, J. Chadwick Johnson et al. · The Quarterly Review of Biology | Sep 2004 | 2,077 |
| 48 | Assessment strategy and the evolution of fighting behaviour George A. Parker · Journal of Theoretical Biology | Sep 1974 | 2,071 |
| 49 | A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity Hillard S Kaplan, Kim R. Hill, Jane B. Lancaster et al. · Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews | 2000 | 2,067 |
| 50 | Attachment as an Organizational Framework for Research on Close Relationships Cindy Hazan, Phillip R. Shaver · Psychological Inquiry | 1994 | 2,064 |
Citations are OpenAlex's own counts, from its 2026-09-23 snapshot, so the ranking can differ from Google Scholar or Web of Science. A paper is listed for a field when OpenAlex files it under one of the field's topics; retracted papers and papers whose citation count cannot be traced to citing works are left out, and a preprint and the article it became are shown once. Release dates are OpenAlex's: where a source gave only a month or a year, that is what is shown. How the lists are chosen.