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Social Sciences and Humanities
UK
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Social Sciences and Humanities

D-Index
75
Citations
18506
World Ranking
557
National Ranking
97

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in United Kingdom Leader Award

Overview

Ruth Mace is affiliated with University College London in the United Kingdom. Their research primarily spans the social sciences, with a concentration on sociology and political science, experimental and cognitive psychology, gender studies, cultural studies, and demography. The scientist has published extensively in these areas, focusing on topics such as evolutionary game theory and cooperation, evolutionary psychology and human behavior, demographic trends and gender preferences, language and cultural evolution, culture, economy and development studies, cultural differences and values, and experimental behavioral economics studies.

Notable recent publications by Ruth Mace include:

  • "Dated phylogeny suggests early Neolithic origin of Sino-Tibetan languages" (2020), published in Scientific Reports
  • "The relationship between social support, stressful events, and menopause symptoms" (2021), published in PLoS ONE
  • "What is cultural evolution anyway?" (2022), published in Behavioral Ecology
  • "A phylogenetic analysis of revolution and afterlife beliefs" (2021), published in Nature Human Behaviour
  • "How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic" (2020), published in Evolution Medicine and Public Health

Ruth Mace has collaborated frequently with several co-authors, including Erhao Ge, Liqiong Zhou, Juan Du, Hanzhi Zhang, and Alberto J. C. Micheletti. The number of joint publications with these colleagues ranges from eight to eleven, indicating sustained research partnerships.

The scientist has contributed multiple publications to a range of academic venues. Ruth Mace's most frequent publication outlets include:

  • Evolutionary Human Sciences (14 publications)
  • Evolution and Human Behavior (6 publications)
  • Faculty Opinions - Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature (5 publications)
  • Scientific Reports (4 publications)
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (4 publications)

The research conducted by Ruth Mace is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach integrating evolutionary perspectives into social science inquiries. The scientist's work includes examining cultural evolution processes, demographic trends, and behavioral studies that intersect with psychology and gender studies.

Best Publications

  • Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival

    Rebecca Sear;Ruth Mace

  • Spread of cattle led to the loss of matrilineal descent in Africa: a coevolutionary analysis

    Clare Janaki Holden;Ruth Mace

  • Phylogenetic Analysis of the Evolution of Lactose Digestion in Adults

    Clare Holden;Ruth Mace

  • A phylogenetic approach to cultural evolution

    Ruth Mace;Clare J. Holden

  • The Comparative Method in Anthropology [and Comments and Reply]

    Ruth Mace;Mark Pagel;John R. Bowen;Biman Kumar Das Gupta

  • Maternal grandmothers improve nutritional status and survival of children in rural Gambia.

    Rebecca Sear;Ruth Mace;Ian A. McGregor

  • Evolutionary ecology of human life history.

    Ruth Mace

  • The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia

    Rebecca Sear;Fiona Steele;Ian A. McGregor;Ruth Mace

  • Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling

    Daniel Smith;Daniel Smith;Philip Schlaepfer;Katie Major;Mark Dyble

  • Rise and fall of political complexity in island South-East Asia and the Pacific

    Thomas E. Currie;Thomas E. Currie;Simon J. Greenhill;Russell D. Gray;Toshikazu Hasegawa

  • THE COMPARATIVE METHOD IN ANTHROPOLOGY

    R Mace;M Pagel

  • The cultural wealth of nations.

    Mark Pagel;Ruth Mace

  • Matrilocal residence is ancestral in Austronesian societies.

    Fiona M. Jordan;Russell D. Gray;Simon J. Greenhill;Ruth Mace

  • Sex equality can explain the unique social structure of hunter-gatherer bands

    M. Dyble;G. D. Salali;N. Chaudhary;A. Page

  • Helpful grandmothers in rural Ethiopia: A study of the effect of kin on child survival and growth

    Mhairi A. Gibson;Ruth Mace

  • Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa.

    Thomas E. Currie;Andrew Meade;Myrtille Guillon;Ruth Mace

  • Macro-evolutionary studies of cultural diversity: a review of empirical studies of cultural transmission and cultural adaptation

    Ruth Mace;Fiona M. Jordan

  • The dawn chorus in the great tit Paras major is directly related to female fertility

    Ruth Mace;Ruth Mace

  • Trade-offs in modern parenting: a longitudinal study of sibling competition for parental care

    David W. Lawson;Ruth Mace

  • The evolution of cultural diversity : a phylogenetic approach

    Ruth Mace;Clare J Holden;Stephan Shennan

  • Optimal daily routines of singing and foraging in a bird singing to attract a mate

    J. M. McNamara;R. H. Mace;A. I. Houston

  • The coevolution of human fertility and wealth inheritance strategies.

    Ruth Mace

  • The history and geography of human genes: by L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, P. Menozzi and A. Piazza Princeton University Press, 1994. £150.00 hbk (xiii + 1032 pages) ISBN 0 691 08750 4

    Ruth Mace

Frequent Co-Authors

Rebecca Sear
Rebecca Sear London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Mark Pagel
Mark Pagel University of Reading
Thomas B. L. Kirkwood
Thomas B. L. Kirkwood Newcastle University
Daniel J. Smith
Daniel J. Smith University of Edinburgh
Stephen C. Stearns
Stephen C. Stearns Yale University
Simon J. Greenhill
Simon J. Greenhill Max Planck Society
William J. Sutherland
William J. Sutherland University of Cambridge
Susanne Shultz
Susanne Shultz University of Manchester
David Haig
David Haig Harvard University
Dallas M. Swallow
Dallas M. Swallow University College London

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