I primarily study the modes of acquisition and expression of more or less functional and sometimes arbitrary forms of (1) object manipulation (e.g., object exploration, object play, extractive foraging, physical and symbolic tool use) and (2) non-conceptive sex (e.g., female-male mounting, same-sex sexual behavior, heterospecific sexually behavior, masturbation) that are socially influenced/learned and culturally maintained in several macaque species.

I employ comparative, longitudinal, experimental, and physiological approaches in my research, that intersect with disciplines such as Psychology, Ethology, Anthropology, Ecology, and Endocrinology.

Ultimately, I strive to view putative behavioral adaptations (e.g., tool use, female-male mounting) and their hypothesized by-products (e.g., object play, female-female mounting) as two complementary sides of the same evolutionary coin. I firmly believe that a focus on by-products of behavioral adaptations can truly further our understanding of evolutionary processes and the diversity of behavioral outcomes they produce, including those with no obvious survival or reproductive values. This approach is significant because the selective role of behavioral by-products has received little attention among evolutionists. Thus, my scholarly work contributes to offering a pluralistic perspective on Darwinian evolutionary theory.