Ramzi Suleiman

Education I studied at the Department of Psychology, the University of Haifa, where I received my M.A. degree in clinical psychology (thesis: Structure of National and Civil Identity of Educated Arabs in Israel) and my Ph.D. degree in decision making (dissertation: Provision of Step-Level Public Goods under Uncertainty). I also studied at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, where I received my M.Sc. degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (thesis: Image Improvement by Coherent Spatial Filtering).

Academic Positions During the last forty five years I taught at many academic institutions, including the Department of Management & Policy and the Department of Marketing at the University of Arizona, The Departments of Sociology at the University of Bern, and at ETH Zurich, The Department of Psychology at Tel-Aviv University, and the Departments of Psychology and Economics and the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa. At the University of Haifa I served at several administrative positions, including Chair of the Psychology Department, Head of the Social Psychology Graduate Program and Head of the Social Psychology Laboratory. I am also co-founder of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.

Research Interests

1. Behavioral Sciences

I consider myself a psychologist and behavioral scientist. I study individual and group human behavior, particularly Social Dilemma Situations. This includes the study of Public Goods, Common Pool Resource dilemmas, trust and the evolution of cooperation. In addition I study bargaining situations with focus on ultimatum bargaining. In my research I use controlled laboratory experiments, mathematical modelling and computer simulations. The theories and models on which I ground my research on include game theory, evolutionary theories and psychological and anthropological theories and models. Recently, I have proposed a general theory of economic interactions termed "economic harmony theory". The theory is shown to outperform game theory in predicting behavior in several economic interactions. Interestingly, for the ultimatum game, the theory predicts that rational, self-interested proposers should split the "pie" in accordance with the famous Golden Ratio.

1. Physics

I have recently become interested in physics, particularly in relativity theories. For the case of inertial systems I wrote a theory termed Information Relativity, and applied it successfully to the dynamics of small particles, cosmology, and quantum mechanics.

1. Palestinian Identity Although I am not a dedicated researcher of social identity, I have devoted considerable time to study the Jewish-Palestinian relations and the collective identity of Israeli-Palestinians. For more than twenty years, I contributed to numerous scholarly and field-activities directed towards the empowerment of the Palestinian minority in Israel and the promotion of dialogue between Jews and Palestinians. This includes scholarly writings, leading roles in NGOs, participation in conferences and teaching advanced courses on Jewish-Arab relations. I served at several voluntary positions in civil society institutions, including the President of the Galilee Center for Social Research and the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the School for Peace. I was also one of the initiators and directors of the Haifa declaration, a collaboration comprised of a large group of Palestinian intellectuals, academics, and social activists, who issued a social-political statement, pertaining to the past, present and vision of the Palestinian minority in Israel.

2. Other In addition to my research interests I write and publish poems, prose poems, short stories, literary vignettes, and social and political articles.