Robert Nicholas Serpell (born 1944 in England) is a Zambian citizen and Professor of Psychology at the University of Zambia.
[1] He has conducted numerous studies on intelligence, literacy and child development in social and cultural context, finding that even within a given society, different cognitive characteristics are emphasized from one situation to another and from one subculture to another.
[3] Serpell and colleagues discovered that people in some African cultures, particularly those where Western schooling is not yet popular, prefer to emphasise the relationship between intellect and social ability.
In Zambia's rural Katete District, for instance, the concept of nzelu includes both cleverness (chenjela) and responsibility (tumikila).
Details of Serpell's personal life, linked to his publications, are presented in a memoir published in 2024.