Abstract submission now open for the next Cultural Evolution Society conference in Rabat, Morocco next May @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social @ces2026.bsky.social

Find out more on the new conference website: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

The count down starts for #CESRabat! Follow @ces2026.bsky.social and join us May 11-13 next year for an exciting meeting in Rabat, Morocco. Massive thanks to the #CESRabat organising committee: Sarah Alami (co-chair) Mathieu Charbonneau (co-chair) Zachary Garfield Edmond Seabright

My department is hiring an assistant professor of environmental behavioral sciences. The research area is open but we are particularly interested in people with research on collective action or computational social sciences. Happy to answer questions about the Doerr School or the department.

I am on vacation in the place I grew up. I used to come here (meeting of the waters, Illecillewaet) everytime we drove through the rockies when I was a kid. At least once a year. Still as impressive as I remember it.

"we are faced with the reality that humans are responsible for what is researched, how it is researched and what conclusions are drawn from such research."

Check out this new publication: Biocultural synthesis of adolescence: a roadmap to advance the field. rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The myth of scientific objectivity hides the truth that every experiment is influenced by cultural values, assumptions and beliefs – and that actually hurts the search for truth Analysis: buff.ly/KcLU0bE 🧪 🩺

Reflections on the #BSPS2025 conference, one of my favourites (after >20 years of conferencing). This year it was held at the beautiful campus on Swansea Bay (sadly didn’t get a pic of the delicious Welsh cakes that came out at afternoon tea!) 🧵

Even people who say they don't trust science *at all*, and flat Earthers (FFS), actually trust nearly all of science! A fun new study with @janpfa.bsky.social and Lou Kerzreho

The recent IARR 2025 mini conference on "Gender, sexuality and relationships" co-led by CCE's Stan Gaines was a great success 🏳️‍🌈😌🫂 The mini-conference was named for the Gender, Sexuality and Relationships (GSR) theme group within Brunel University of London’s Centre for Culture and Evolution (CCE)

🚨 New paper led by ‪@asatsa.bsky.social‬! We show that participation in Luhya mourning rituals overall increases well-being and cooperation among the bereaved, yet qualitative findings show they can also be perceived negatively by some community members royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Coincidentally, was talking about eugenics again yesterday at the #BSPS2025 conference. Dermot Grenham and Alice Reid organised a very interesting session on similarities in public concern about low fertility in the 1920s and 2020s

I think 182 year old research articles should be free I want to read about the man

The pronatalists have done an excellent job of using bad demography to convince the legacy media that low birth rates are a crisis. They are using bad demography to whitewash their sexism, racism, Christian nationalism, classism, & anti-LGBTQ sentiments. It’s why my colleagues & I wrote this:

This is a great thing to do - I did it, loved it and it underpinned a Phil Trans B special issue 💜 If you want any advice DM me Also my (with @drsarahmyers.bsky.social and @ehemmott.bsky.social successful application is on the EHBEA website to help guide you…. Just saying there’s still time 🕰️

This is my point (and Duncan’s) that this special issue is co-edited by @rebeccasear.bsky.social @drsarahmyers.bsky.social and me and an @ehbea.bsky.social initiative to support rigour in science We’re all evolutionary *to our core* and care deeply about using this knowledge to challenge hate

🚨 GRANT APPLICATION 🚨 Do not forget to apply for the workshop/event grant from EHBEA in case you are organising a scientific event 😉 DEADLINE: September 11th, 2025

Here is the link to a short blog that @kztwyman.bsky.social and I wrote about our article (with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social and Marc Feldman) entitled "Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience": www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

WE ARE HIRING! 2 Lecturers in Quantitative Social Science. Want a friendly interdisciplinary department in one of the world's most vibrant cities? This just might be for you. Apply by: 10 Oct www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

A lot of evo anth people are trying extremely hard to fight the researgence of eugenic thinking using their own disciplinary toolkit.

🎙️ In the first episode, Jakub discusses the evolution of demography from population counts to a life-course perspective, and why migration isn't a long-term policy solution to population ageing. Listen now 👉 futu-res.eu/certainfutures

Looking to do a PhD in demography, health, data science? Oxford Demography (LCDS) is recruiting to fill TWO positions! See Charlie's posts below for specifics. Come join us in the beautiful (albeit a bit rainy) Oxford!! 👩‍🏫📊🌦️

Race Isn’t Biological — So Why Do So Many Still Think It Is? @kevinlala.bsky.social and @kztwyman.bsky.social blog about their recent paper in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

When nation-states stop publishing statistical tables.

Calling all CE folks interested in artificial life, get in your abstracts for the upcoming ALIFE -25!

Starting the week strong 💪 we share now the plenary talk of @heidicolleran.bsky.social, which was part of @ehbea2025.bsky.social Here, she talks about the misconceptions and the biases behind the idea of “natural fertility”👶 Pass by, have a look, and stay tuned! youtu.be/8Ch1t7zpW10?...

A project started shortly before Covid hit has finally arrived in print, phew!

Last but not least! today we share the talk of Christine Caldwell as plenary speaker at @ehbea2025.bsky.social Here she talks about the cognitive challenges for cumulative cultural evolution and how these abilities were selected 🧠 Don’t miss it! 👇 youtu.be/UvVNfyiYOGc?...

New study led by Joanna Baker shows bigger brains and relatively longer thumbs coevolved in primates. Humans have huge thumbs, but only what our brain size (esp. neocortex) would predict. It’s NOT driven by tool use. A fantastic paper with a huge amount of work, and superb data presentation 🧪🏺👍🧠💀🐒🦧

Interesting on how publishers respond when concerns are raised 👇 My own experience: Springer, 3 journals, No action Elsevier, 3, No action CUP, 1, No action Brill, 1, No action Emerald, 1, No action Frontiers, 1, No action Qeios, No action Cell Press, 1, Editorial note Royal Society, 1, Retraction

And super duper immensely excited to share that we received funding to continue conversations on the past, present, and future of evolutionary behavioral sciences! w/ @anthrofuentes.bsky.social, @rebeccasear.bsky.social, @sarahalami.bsky.social

Such a fantastic study by @tdcapellini.bsky.social's lab, showing how much pelvic bones development changed in humans in adapting to bipedalism. And so frustrating that their grant was terminated by the Trump administration less than half-way through, in retaliation to Harvard not playing along.

New preprint! "Parental beliefs and practices around child weight in London, England: insights from qualitative photo-elicitation interviews" We explored how parents view child weight + weight-related behaviours, and discuss implications for public health practice. doi.org/10.31235/osf...

There's a lawsuit about AI stealing your work. It's the same lawyers taking on Elsevier et al in a separate case. Academics: 1. Check if your work is in LibGen at www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... 2. If so, let the lawyers know at www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...

Exciting news for the evolutionary behavioural sciences ❤️🐒🧪 co-led with CCE's Director @rebeccasear.bsky.social CCE at @brunelpsy.bsky.social is an unique blend of cultural evolution, psychology, anthropology, cross-cultural studies, human behavioural ecology and demography - so this is EXCITING

Opportunities for scientists to have art students design a comic about their research

Hive mind: I'm writing a book chapter called Utter Bastards – intended to showcase the ways in which animals (yes, incl. us) can be 'nasty'. I've got lots of the obvious candidates e.g. siblicide, infanticide, sexual coercion etc. anything *unusual* you think should be in there?

Today we share the work from @drboothroyd.bsky.social, as one of the plenary speaker in @ehbea2025.bsky.social She talks about how common assumptions related to appearance ideals and sexual selection may differ when using more culturally diverse data 😮 Have a look! 👀 youtu.be/ENK3WPSJSo8?...

🧵 1/ 📢 New CCE pre-print on open-ended technological evolution by @replicatedtypo.bsky.social and @matcharbonneau.bsky.social ‬👇 @brunelpsy.bsky.social #ehbea #culturalevolution

🚨🚨 New preprint 📜 with Mathieu Charbonneau (@matcharbonneau.bsky.social‬): Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution (arxiv.org/abs/2508.04828). Feedback welcomed! #Evolution #Technology #Culture #OpenEnded #TechnologicalEvolution #CulturalEvolution 🧵: 1/29

Ayesha Ali as Sekhmet the Egyptian lioness of war and healing 🦁🔥🩸 @aiyanakoka.bsky.social as Inanna the Sumerian goddess of love/war and fertility 🌹🗡️✨ @michelleakline.bsky.social as Brigid the poet & smith 🛠️📜 @loraadair.bsky.social as Hekate, the Greek goddess of magic, crossroads & the night 🌙🗝️

The Spirits and Sources folks attended the Goddess Conference last week 🧙‍♀️🪬🧚 lots of fieldwork 🏞️🔍, participant observation and ethnography 🧑‍🤝‍🧑📋🖊️, and community building 🌐🤝🏘️ as well as embodied experience 🙏💃🌀 @brunelpsy.bsky.social @brunelgradschool.bsky.social

@brunelpsy.bsky.social hosted the International Association for Relationship Research (IARR) on the topic of “Gender, Sexuality, and Relationships” last week with amazing representation from Brunel undergrad, MSc and PhD researchers ❤️🤩 all mentored by the 🌟 @loraadair.bsky.social 🌟

🧵 1/8 🌟Brand spanking new paper (again) by CCE’s @loraadair.bsky.social and ex-PhD student Tristin Agtarap on culture and the policies and procedures that regulate sex ed and abortion care in Sexuality Research and Social Policy 📢 @brunelgradschool.bsky.social l @brunelpsy.bsky.social l

Getting serious FOMO watching the posts from #IPC2025, and will be especially sad to miss the Evolutionary Demography session on Tuesday afternoon. If you're a demographer in Brisbane, check it out ☺️

There's a particular type of low quality, headline-hungry research on sex differences which seems to be trying to prove that men and women are almost different species (invariably by ignoring the anthropological literature). Did not realise that fans of this research use that phrase unironically

Hope this whets your appetite for the the CES 2026 conference! culturalevolutionsociety.org/conference/

CCE's amazing 🤩 director @rebeccasear.bsky.social was discussing implications of low fertility for population change and society at the @britishacademy.bsky.social recently 🤓