Patrik Lindenfors

I am a senior research officer and innovation advisor at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and an affiliated researcher in biological and cultural evolution at the Institute for Futures Studies and the Centre for Cultural Evolution at the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University.

My latest book is Kreativ med Darwin (Creative with Darwin). My fourth book, The Cultural Animal, and my sixth, Disgust, received rave reviews. There are links to my latest articles to the right, both science and opinion pieces.

I am editor and publisher of Humanisten and member of the jury for non-fiction for the August Prize literary award. I am a former board member of Humanists Sweden, former vice president of the European Humanist Federation, former chairperson of the Swedish Arts Council's evaluation committee for non-fiction literature, and former chairperson of the National Committee for Biology at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Books


  • Kreativ med Darwin
    Kreativ med Darwin: Handbok för innovatörer. In the book I show how you can become a better innovator by using the world’s most tried-and-tested method: the evolutionary process. You can also book lectures & workshops. (In Swedish)
  • Äckel
    Äckel – smitta, synd, samhälle. Disgust makes us avoid spoilt food and people who blow their nose in the table cloth. But feelings of revulsion also inform us about right and wrong. A book about an emotion and its influence on the culture wars. (In Swedish)
  • Kristendom
    Kristendom. Christianity is the world's largest religion and its holy book, the Bible, the world's most influential book. Even those who do not share the Christian worldview must relate to it. (In Swedish)
  • Det kulturella djuret
    Det kulturella djuret – Om människans evolution och tänkandets utveckling. About three evolutionary processes that have shaped our brains and minds: biological evolution, associative learning and cultural evolution. (In Swedish)
  • For Whose Benefit?
    For Whose Benefit? The Biological and Cultural Evolution of Human Cooperation. We are all made of parts – genes, cells, neurons, but also ideas (‘memes’). Our societies too are made of parts – humans. Is all this cooperation the same process?
  • Sekulär humanism
    Sekulär humanism (Secular Humanism) is written together with Christer Sturmark. The book explains humanism as a life stance in an easy to understand manner. (In Swedish)
  • Samarbete
    Samarbete (Cooperation) takes the reader on a journey, navigating the enigmatic aspects of cooperation; a journey that starts inside the body and continues via our thoughts to the human super-organism. (In Swedish)
  • God Probably Doesn't Exist
    God Probably Doesn't Exist introduces atheism to children and youth. The book has so far been translated into eight languages. (Anyone keen on translating it into Arabic or French? In that case, please send me an e-mail.)

Senior research officer

After more than 25 years as a researcher I now work as a senior research officer and innovation advisor at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. I am still involved in a few research projects, however.

Cultural Evolution

The latest scientific work I carried out focused on investigating the evolution of democracy. For this reason, I was one of several project managers for the V-Dem project at the Department of Political Science in Gothenburg.

I also did research on the evolution of religion, where my aim was to bring order in the relationships between evolutionary factors, psychological factors and religious phenomena. Further, I investigated how health effects of religious practices come about through religious regulations and placebo effects, and how these health effects in turn have affected the evolution of religion.

Biological Evolution

In my biological research, I investigated how species differences and sex differences in mammal brains are related to sex differences in behaviour. The results indicate that behavioural differences between the sexes have had some influence on primate brain architecture, but also that these relationships are far from clear.

My other biological research focused mostly on the use and development of phylogenetic methods, especially through analyses of the evolution of sex differences. Besides that, I long nurtured a special interest in social evolution in general, and the evolution of cooperation in particular.

During my post-doc at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville I investigated what factors influence parasite diversity. The data I helped gather is available at the Global Mammal Parasite Database.

Science

  • Five current articles:
  • Lindenfors P 2024 Res Cogitans – The Evolution of Thinking. Biosemiotics 17: 655-670. PDF
  • Wilson MC, Maerz SF, Lindenfors P, Edgell AB, Boese V & Lindberg SI 2023 Episodes of liberalization in autocracies: a new approach to quantitatively studying democratization. Political Science Research and Methods 11: 501-520. PDF
  • Lindenfors P, Wartel A & Lind J 2021 Dunbar’s number deconstructed. Biology Letters 17: 20210158. PDF
  • Edgell AB, Boese VA, Maerz SF, Lindenfors P & Lindberg SI 2021 The institutional order of liberalization. British Journal of Political Science 52: 1465–1471. PDF
  • Lindenfors P, Wilson MC & Lindberg SI 2020 The Matthew effect in political science: head start and key reforms important for democratization. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 7: 106. PDF

Opinion & Popular Science

  • Five current articles:
  • Lindenfors P 2025 Äckelkänslor i Israel–Palestinakonflikten. Sans magasin Nr. 1.
  • Lindenfors P 2024 Antirasism som religion. Recension av Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America av John McWhorter. Axess Nr. 7.
  • Lindenfors P 2024 Skilj mellan sund genetik och rasbiologi. Flamman 30 april.
  • Lindenfors P 2024 Den ljusnande framtid är vår – om vi vill. Sans magasin Nr. 2.
  • Lindenfors P 2023 Nationalism är för viktig för att lämnas åt populister. Forskning & Framsteg 17 november.