Louise Mackie

I am a comparative psychologist from Edinburgh, Scotland.

In general, my research explores the intrinsic motivations behind social learning—why individuals copy others, and why they don’t—in children, dogs and chimpanzees. My work is non-invasive, follows open-science policies, and uses cross-species comparisons for evolutionary insights into the mechanisms of our socio-cognitive capabilities.

In 2026, I have worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr. Fumihiro Kano's lab, to investigate the attentional processes (with eye-tracking technology) that underly social learning and imitation in chimpanzees and children. 

I completed my PhD in 2025 at the Clever Dog Lab (Vetmeduni Vienna) under the supervision of Prof. Ludwig Huber. And I received my MSc in 2021 in Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology at the University of St Andrews.

You can find my Google Scholar here and email me at louise.mackie@vetmeduni.ac.at 

ORCID: 0009-0004-6834-2987