Stephanie Fox

Research Overview

Humans are an exceptionally social species. In humans and other social primates, sociality is tightly linked with health and survival. In these species, social integration often declines in late life, but isolation and loneliness can be especially detrimental to individual well being. Dr. Fox analyzes social behavior, demography and hormones in non-human primates as comparative models to understand the evolutionary roots of human sociality. Her work focuses on understanding how social integration varies over the lifespan by investigating social, ecological and demographic variables that constrain and promote sociality in different life phases. Most recently, she is using cross-species and cross-cultural data to assess the role of adult offspring in promoting or constraining sociality of aging mothers. Her work draws on long-term field observations of wild primates, mainly chimpanzees and blue monkeys, and laboratory analyses of biomarkers from non-invasively collected biological samples. She also leads an interdisciplinary working group dedicated to synthesizing cross-species and cross-cultural research to build holistic, evolutionary perspectives on human social aging.