Staff profile

I am a cross-cultural psychologist. My main interest is in understanding human behavioural adaptation to ensure the survival of offspring and kin. My work integrates evolutionary biology/psychology and behavioural sciences.

Currently, I am working on how to protect children from air pollution in Nepal and Indonesia, two countries with significant air pollution issues. This research methodology includes self-report questionnaires, behavioural observation, and health interventions.

In my previous postdoc at UCL, I researched how cultures, such as ethnicities, regions of residence, and religion, influenced the development of empathy and prosocial behaviour in Indonesia, a country with high cultural diversity, using questionnaires, experimental behaviour, and observational experiments.

My PhD research focused on homosexuality in Indonesia using an evolutionary approach. I tested the kin selection hypothesis, facial femininity, and the older brother effect in homosexual men. In my PhD, I was also involved in projects about handedness in a non-industrialized society and local adaptation of people who live in a risky area (i.e., volcano). During my PhD, I employed a diverse range of research methods, such as questionnaires, genealogical data, interviews, experimental behaviour, and economic games.

• Cross-cultural psychology
• Evolution and development of empathy
• Evolution of homosexuality

Journal Article

• Arnot, M., Brandl, E., Campbell, O. L. K., Chen, Y., Du, J., Dyble, M., Emmott, E. H., Ge, E., Kretschmer, L. D. W., Mace, R., Micheletti, A. J. C., Nila, S., Peacey, S., Deniz Salali, G., & Zhang, H. (2020). How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2020(1), 264–278. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaa038
• Purba, L. H. P. S., Widayati, K. A., Suzuki-Hashido, N., Itoigawa, A., Hayakawa, T., Nila, S., Juliandi, B., Suryobroto, B., & Imai, H. (2020). Evolution of the bitter taste receptor TAS2R38 in colobines. Primates, 61(3), 485-494. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-020-00799-1
• Nurhayu, W., Nila, S., Widayati, K. A., Rianti, P., Suryobroto, B., & Raymond, M. (2020). Handedness heritability in industrialized and nonindustrialized societies. Heredity, 124(2), 313-324. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-019-0274-3
• Nila, S., Crochet, P.-A., Barthes, J., Rianti, P., Juliandi, B., Suryobroto, B., & Raymond, M. (2019). Male Homosexual Preference: Femininity and the Older Brother Effect in Indonesia. Evolutionary Psychology, 17(4), Article 147470491988070. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704919880701
• Nila, S., Barthes, J., Crochet, P.-A., Suryobroto, B., & Raymond, M. (2018). Kin Selection and Male Homosexual Preference in Indonesia. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(8), 2455-2465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1202-y
• Nurhayu, W., Nila, S., Raymond, M., & Suryobroto, B. (2018). Are right- and left-handedness relevant as general categories in a non-industrialized country?. Acta ethologica, 21(1), 21-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-017-0279-y
• Nila, S., Suryobroto, B., & Widayati, K. A. (2014). Dietary Variation of Long Tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Telaga Warna, Bogor, West Java. HAYATI Journal of Biosciences, 21(1), 8-14. https://doi.org/10.4308/hjb.21.1.8