Staff profile

After completing my undergraduate (BSc, Hons) in Biology at the University of Nottingham and then a masters (MSc) in Biological Computation at the University of York, I carried out my PhD at the Sub-Dept. of Animal Behaviour (Madingley), within the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, supervised by Kevin Lala (formally Laland). This work focused on the adaptive value of social learning, including experiments studying social learning in guppy fish and mathematical modelling exploring the circumstances under which social learning can evolve. I then worked as a post-doc with Marc Feldman at Stanford University, developing mathematical models of cultural evolution in humans, in particular exploring fertility transition patterns within and across populations and a separate project modelling the evolution of costly normative practices. This was followed by a post-doc position with Kevin Lala in St. Andrews running experiments to examine social learning in stickleback fish. In 2007, I moved to Durham to take up a Research Fellowship (RCUK) in the Department of Anthropology which transitioned to a lectureship. And Durham's such a lovely place I've been here ever since!

Research Interests

I'm interested in how properties of human learning and human-environment interactions shape patterns of cultural variation. I use a wide variety of approaches from mathematical modelling and experiments, to interviews and focus group work. Most of the research involves cross-disciplinary collaboration. Here's a selection of recent or ongoing projects:

• adaptive properties of social learning
• coevolution of AI and human behaviour - implications for human knowledge and inequality
• conformist biased transmission dynamics
• cultural practices affecting disease emergence
• cultural evolution of knots - focusing on copying errors and the topology of knot space
• evolution of folktales and folkmusic
• evolution of graphical representations
• evolutionary properties of digital technologies
• prestige effects on patterns of social transmission in hierarchical institutions
• social influences on cooperative behaviour
• tacit knowledge in academia
• spatial memory

PhD Projects

PhD projects are available in the following areas:

• The Evolution of Temporal Representations in Humans and Non-human Animals
  • co-supervised with Gema Martin-Ordas (University of Stirling) and Kristie Miller (University of Sydney)
• The Evolution of Climbing Grade Systems
  • co-supervised with Amanda Tan (Durham University)
• Functioning of Spatial Memory in Urban Environments
  • co-supervised with Alex Easton and Marco Bernini (Durham University)

Prospective students are also welcome to contact me with their own research project ideas.

Funding is available through the Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership NINE DTP.

Teaching

I teach undergraduate modules concerning evolutionary explanations of human behaviour, scientific methods and statistics. In 2024-25, I have a new third-year module called Evolving Knowledge Systems. This will take in a wide range of perspectives from indigenous knowledge to distributed cognition to AI algorithms.

• Social transmission and population dynamics

Chapter in book

• Offord, M., Brand, C., & Kendal, J. (2024). Prestige-Biased Social Learning. In J. J. Tehrani (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198869252.013.16
• Kendal, J. (2017). Foreword. In C. Deane-Drummond, & A. Fuentes (Eds.), The evolution of human wisdom. Lexington Books
• Kendal, J., & Walters, C. (2015). Cultural Evolution, Gene–Culture Coevolution, and Human Health: an Introduction to Modelling Approaches. In J. Bissell, C. Caiado, S. Curtis, M. Goldstein, & B. Straughan (Eds.), Tipping points : modelling social problems and health (146-167). Wiley
• Kendal, J. (2015). Gene-Culture Coevolution. In J. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (813-818). (2nd ed.). Elsevier
• Kendal, J. (2013). Gene-culture Coevolution. In J. McGee, & R. Warms (Eds.), Theory in social and cultural anthropology : an encyclopedia (316-319). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452276311.n101
• Kendal, J. (2011). Interactions between cognition and culture. In V. Swami (Ed.), Evolutionary psychology : a critical introduction (311-342). Wiley
• Laland, K., Kendal, J., & Kendal, R. (2009). Animal culture: problems and solutions. In K. Laland, & B. J. Galef (Eds.), The Question of Animal Culture. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv322v4wf.11
• Laland, K., & Kendal, J. (2003). What the models say about animal social learning. In D. Fragaszy, & S. Perry (Eds.), The Biology of Traditions (33-55). Chicago University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511584022.003

Journal Article

• Pooladvand, P., Kendal, J., & Tanaka, M. (in press). How cultural innovations trigger the emergence of new pathogens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
• Street, S., Eerola, T., & Kendal, J. The role of population size in folk tune complexity (preprint). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2he8k. Manuscript submitted for publication
• Easton, A., Horner, A. J., James, S. J., Kendal, J., Sutton, J., & Ainge, J. A. (2024). Context in memory is reconstructed, not encoded. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 167, Article 105934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105934
• Watson, R., Morgan, T., Kendal, R., Van de Vyver, J., & Kendal, J. (2024). Investigating the effects of social information on spite in an online game. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 6, Article e26. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2024.18
• Denton, K. K., Kendal, J. R., Ihara, Y., & Feldman, M. W. (2023). Cultural niche construction with application to fertility control: A model for education and social transmission of contraceptive use. Theoretical Population Biology, 153, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tpb.2023.06.001
• Sakamoto Martini, G., Kendal, J., & Tehrani, J. J. (2023). Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511. Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies, 64(1-2), 7-30. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabula-2023-0002
• Granito, C., Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Scott-Phillips, T. (2022). Does Group Contact Shape Styles of Pictorial Representation? A Case Study of Australian Rock Art. Human Nature, 33(3), 237-260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-022-09430-2
• Street, S., Eerola, T., & Kendal, J. (2022). The role of population size in folk tune complexity. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9, Article 152. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01139-y
• Watson, R., Morgan, T. J., Kendal, R. L., Van de Vyver, J., & Kendal, J. (2021). Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game. Games, 12(4), Article 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/g12040089
• Scanlon, L., Lobb, A., Tehrani, J. J., & Kendal, J. R. (2019). Unknotting the interactive effects of learning processes on cultural evolutionary dynamics. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 1, Article e17. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.17
• Offord, M., Gill, R., & Kendal, J. (2019). The Effects of Prestige on Collective Performance and Information Flow in a Strictly Hierarchical Institution. Palgrave communications, 5, Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0211-8
• Granito, C., Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Scott-Phillips, T. (2019). Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 1, Article e8. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.8
• Rudman, H., Bailey-Ross, C., Kendal, J., Mursic, Z., Lloyd, A., Ross, B., & Kendal, R. L. (2018). Multidisciplinary exhibit design in a Science Centre: a participatory action research approach. Educational Action Research, 26(4), 567-588-588. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2017.1360786
• Vale, G., Flynn, E. G., Kendal, J., Rawlings, B., Hopper Lydia, M., Schapiro Steven, J., Lambeth Susan, P., & Kendal, R. (2017). Testing differential use of payoff-biased social learning strategies in children and chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1868), Article 20171751. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1751
• Acerbi, A., Kendal, J., & Tehrani, J. (2017). Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktales. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(4), 474-480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.03.005
• Skrebyte, A., Garnett, P., & Kendal, J. (2016). Temporal Relationships Between Individualism–Collectivism and the Economy in Soviet Russia: A Word Frequency Analysis Using the Google Ngram Corpus. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 47(9), 1217-1235. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022116659540
• Offord, M., Gill, R., & Kendal, J. (2016). Leadership between decks: a synthesis and development of engagement and resistance theories of leadership based on evidence from practice in Royal Navy warships. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 37(2), 289-304. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-07-2014-0119
• Kendal, R., Kendal, J., Mursic, Z., Bailey-Ross, C., Rudman, H., Lloyd, A., & Ross, B. (2016). Designing for creativity and innovation in informal science learning. The Informal Learning Review, 20-24
• Attwell, L., Kovarovic, K., & Kendal, J. (2015). Fire in the Plio-Pleistocene: The functions of hominin fire use, and the mechanistic, developmental and evolutionary consequences. Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 93, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.4436/jass.93006
• Walters, C., & Kendal, J. (2013). An SIS model for cultural trait transmission with conformity bias. Theoretical Population Biology, 90, 56-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tpb.2013.09.010
• Walters, C., Straughan, B., & Kendal, J. (2013). Modelling alcohol problems: Total recovery. Ricerche di matematica, 62(1), 33-53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11587-012-0138-0
• Flynn, E., Laland, K., Kendal, R., & Kendal, J. (2013). Developmental niche construction. Developmental Science, 16(2), 296-313. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12030
• Kendal, J. (2012). Comment concerning cumulative cultural evolution, on M. O'Brien and K.N. Laland 'Genes, culture and agriculture: an example of human niche construction'. Current Anthropology, 53(4), 434-470. https://doi.org/10.1086/666585
• Kendal, J. (2011). Cultural niche construction and human learning environments: investigating socio-cultural perspectives. Biological Theory, 6(3), 241-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0038-2
• Kendal, J., Tehrani, J., & Odling-Smee, J. (2011). Human Niche Construction in Interdisciplinary Focus. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1566), 785-792. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0306
• Setchell, J., Kendal, J., & Tyniec, P. (2011). Do non-human primates synchronise their menstrual cycles? A test in mandrills. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 36(1), 51-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.06.004
• Kendal, R., Custance, D., Kendal, J., Vale, G., Stoinski, T., Rakotomalala, N., & Rasaminanana, H. (2010). Evidence for social learning in wild lemurs (Lemur catta). Learning & Behavior, 38(3), 220-234. https://doi.org/10.3758/lb.38.3.220
• Hoppitt, W., Kandler, A., Kendal, J., & Laland, K. (2010). The effect of task structure on diffusion dynamics: Implications for diffusion curve and network-based analyses. Learning & Behavior, 38(3), 243-251. https://doi.org/10.3758/lb.38.3.243
• Pike, T., Kendal, J., Rendell, L., & Laland, K. (2010). Learning by proportional observation in a species of fish. Behavioral Ecology, 21, 570-575. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arq025
• Kendal, R., Kendal, J., Hoppitt, W., & Laland, K. (2009). Identifying Social Learning in Animal Populations: A New ‘Option-Bias’ Method. PLoS ONE, 4(8), Article e6541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006541
• Laland, K., Odling-Smee, J., Feldman, M., & Kendal, J. (2009). Conceptual Barriers to Progress Within Evolutionary Biology. Foundations of Science, 14, 195-216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-008-9153-8
• Tanaka, M., Kendal, J., & Laland, K. (2009). From Traditional Medicine to Witchcraft: Why Medical Treatments Are Not Always Efficacious. PLoS ONE, 4(4), Article e5192. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005192
• Kendal, J., Giraldeau, L.-A., & Laland, K. (2009). frequency-dependent biased transmission. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 260(2), 210-219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.05.029
• Kendal, J., Rendell, L., Pike, T., & Laland, K. (2009). Nine-spined sticklebacks deploy a hill-climbing social learning strategy. Behavioral Ecology, 20(2), 238-244. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arp016
• Kendal, J. (2008). Modelling social learning in monkeys. The behavior analyst today, 9(1), 50-56
• Stanley, E., Kendal, R., Kendal, J., Grounds, S., & Laland, K. (2008). Factors affecting the stability of foraging traditions in fishes. Animal Behaviour, 75, 565-572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.06.014
• Rendell, L., Hoppitt, W., & Kendal, J. (2008). Commentary: Is all learning innovation?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(4), 421-422. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x0700252x
• Kendal, J., Kendal, R., & Laland, K. (2007). Quantifying and modeling social learning processes in monkey populations
• Laland, K., Kendal, J., & Brown, G. (2007). The niche construction perspective: implications for human behaviour. Journal of cultural and evolutionary psychology, 5(1-4), 51-66. https://doi.org/10.1556/jep.2007.1003
• Kendal, J., Kendal, R., & Laland, K. (2007). Erratum to Quantifying and modelling social learning processes in Monkey Populations
• Borenstein, E., Kendal, J., & Feldman, M. (2006). Cultural Niche Construction in a metapopulation. Theoretical Population Biology, 70(1), 92-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tpb.2005.10.003
• Kendal, J., Feldman, M., & Aoki, K. (2006). Cultural coevolution of norm adoption and enforcement when punishers are rewarded or non-punishers are punished. Theoretical Population Biology, 70(1), 10-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tpb.2006.01.003
• Kendal, J. (2006). Review of "Social Learning and Imitation": Volume 32(1), 2004, of Learning and Behavior
• Reader, S., Kendal, J., & Laland, K. (2003). Social learning through local enhancement in wild guppy fish in Trinidad. Animal Behaviour, 66, 729-739. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2003.2252
• Day, R., Coe, R., Kendal, J., & Laland, K. (2003). Neophilia, innovation and social learning: A study of intergeneric differences in Callitrichid monkeys. Animal Behaviour, 65, 559-571. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2003.2074
• Day, R., Kendal, J., & Laland, K. (2001). Validating cultural transmission in Cetaceans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(2), 330-331. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x01293960
• Swaney, W., Kendal, J., Capon, H., Brown, C., & Laland, K. (2001). Familiarity facilitates social learning of foraging behaviour in the guppy. Animal Behaviour, 62, 591-598. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2001.1788
• Kendal, J., & Laland, K. (2000). Mathematical models for memetics

Manual

• Kendal, J., Tehrani, J., & Kendal, R. (2009). The Evolution of Human Behaviour

Working Paper

• Kendal, J., Ihara, Y., & Feldman, M. (2005). Cultural niche construction with application to fertility control: a model of education and social transmission of contraceptive use