[5][6][7] In 2001 to 2002 McElreath won a fellowship to work as a postdoctoral researcher studying bounded rationality at the Max Planck Institute under Gerd Gigerenzer.
He was awarded tenure (2006) and promoted to full professor (2014), holding the chair of the Evolutionary Anthropology department from 2014 to 2015.
[5] His main research focus lies in the evolution of cultural behaviors.
Expanding on his work in anthropology, he has also been researching the social dynamics of the replication crisis in science and contributing to statistical education.
[8][9] His work has been covered by professional and popular media, e.g. in Nature,[10] The Economist[11] Pacific Standard,[1] and The Atlantic.