Cristine Legare is a professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Legare directs the Center for Applied Cognitive Science and the Evolution, Variation, and Ontogeny of Learning Laboratory. Her research examines the interplay of the universal human mind and the variations of culture to study cognitive and cultural evolution.

Her research and training reflect her commitment to an interdisciplinary approach to the study of cognitive development. She draws on insights from cognitive, cultural, developmental, educational, and evolutionary psychology as well as cognitive and evolutionary anthropology and philosophy, with the aim of facilitating cross-fertilization within and across these disciplines. As an undergraduate, she took coursework from a variety of social science disciplines, double majoring in human development and cultural studies at the University of California, San Diego. In graduate school, she participated in the Culture and Cognition Program while completing her doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of Michigan.