My work concerns the integrated study of hazing, newcomers, and enduring coalitions. I am interested in evolutionary and cultural explanations for newcomer-directed behaviors, as well as using science to better inform related policy prescriptions.

Publications

Cimino, A., Pollock, J., & Thomas, B. (2024). Costly inductions as a commitment-selection strategy: Assessing hazing's relationship with attrition in a college fraternity. Evolution and Human Behavior.

Cimino, A. (2023). Studying hazing as an anthropologist: The impact of mandatory reporting. American Anthropologist.

Cimino, A. (2023). On the use of questionable anti-hazing messaging. Journal of College and Character.

Cimino, A. & Thomas, B. (2022). Does hazing actually increase group solidarity? Re-examining a classic theory with a modern fraternity. Evolution and Human Behavior.

Thomas, B., Cimino, A., & Meglich, P. (2021). Workplace hazing: Toward an organizational science of a cryptic group practice. Group & Organization Management.

Cimino, A. (2020). Embrace & reform: Ending hazing's prohibition era. Excerpted in Perspectives: A Publication for the Members of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors.

Cimino, A., Toyokawa, W., Komatsu, M., Thomson, R., & Gaulin, S. J. C. (2019). Cross-cultural and cross-organizational evidence for an evolved hazing motivation. Evolutionary Psychology.

Cimino, A. (2017). Defining hazing: Why popular definitions are misleading and counterproductive. Journal of Higher Education Management.

Cimino, A. (2016). Fraternity hazing and the process of planned failure. Journal of American Studies.

Cimino, A. (2013). Predictors of hazing motivation in a representative sample of the United States. Evolution and Human Behavior.

Cimino, A. (2013). Hazing as a manifestation of evolved psychology (Doctoral dissertation). University of California, Santa Barbara.

Delton, A. W., Nemirow, J., Robertson, T. E., Cimino, A., & Cosmides, L. (2013). Merely opting out of a public good is moralized: An error management approach to cooperation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Cimino, A. (2011). The evolution of hazing: Motivational mechanisms and the abuse of newcomers. Journal of Cognition and Culture.

Delton, A. W. & Cimino, A. (2010). Exploring the evolved concept of NEWCOMER: Experimental tests of a cognitive model. Evolutionary Psychology.

Cimino, A. & Delton, A. W. (2010). On the perception of newcomers: Toward an evolved psychology of intergenerational coalitions. Human Nature.

News and Media

The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Why Do Students Haze in Fraternities? A New Study Challenges Conventional Wisdom"

Kent State Today, "Groundbreaking Study of Fraternity Hazing Co-Authored by Kent State Researcher Reveals Little Connection to Group Solidarity"

L.A. Not So Confidential podcast, "Hazing with Dr. Cimino"

Dyad Strategies podcast, "Why Hazing"

CNN, "They pledge. Get hazed. The cycle continues."

Yahoo News, "Fraternity Hazing and PTSD"

NPR KCLU, "UCSB Researcher Tries to Unravel Mysteries Behind Hazing"

NPR Radio Boston, "Is Hazing A Normal Part of College Life?"

University of California, "UCSB Anthropologist Examines the Motivating Factors Behind Hazing"