Björn Lindström
@bjornlindstrom.bsky.social
📤 987
📥 444
📝 81
Researching (social) learning and cultural evolution at Karolinska Institute, Sweden
pinned post!
Thrilled that our paper on the mechanisms underlying social learning strategies is out! First big paper from my
@erc.europa.eu
&
@kawresearch.bsky.social
funded group. More to come! I'm currently looking to recruit two post docs, get in touch if you find this line of research interesting.
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6 months ago
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Roddy Grieves
1 day ago
Can humans & animals really use internal maps to take shortcuts? Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze. Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think. 🧵👇
doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social
@ejneuroscience.bsky.social
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Tolman's Sunburst Maze 80 Years on: A Meta‐Analysis Reveals Poor Replicability and Little Evidence for Shortcutting
In 1946, Tolman et al. reported that rats could take a novel shortcut to a goal after training on an indirect route, supporting the Cognitive Map theory. However, a review of subsequent Sunburst maze...
https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.70365
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Jim Thompson
1 day ago
On a more positive note, this NN is worth a read. It takes a similar approach to Ashwood, Calhoun etc to explore diff behavioral states using HMM, but here using a hierarchical Dirichlet process to infer number of states
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Infinite hidden Markov models can dissect the complexities of learning - Nature Neuroscience
Bruijns et al. present a modeling tool that enables the tracking of learning dynamics across subjects to reveal how behaviors emerge and adapt. Applying the tool to a decision-making task in mice unco...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02130-x
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Cody Moser
7 days ago
My co-authors and I are happy to present our framework "Collective Intelligence as Collective Information Processing (CIP)." Here we propose decomposing different information processing mechanisms to unify disparate phenomena traditionally classified as "collective intelligence."
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Igor Grossmann, PhD
8 days ago
🚨 New Paper Alert 🚨 "Understanding & Predicting Cultural Change" is accepted at Advances in Experimental Social Psychology! Varnum & I argue that Psychology cannot afford to be blind to time. We need to move from cross-sectional snapshots to dynamic time-series movies. 🧵👇
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9 days ago
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Joe Noonan
14 days ago
All I want for Christmas is for Sweden to revive its spooky Christmas goat tradition.
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Alberto Acerbi
21 days ago
New preprint: "The Cultural Ecology of Social Media"
osf.io/preprints/so...
Thread ⬇️⬇️⬇️
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Alberto Acerbi
24 days ago
"misinformation is widespread in biological systems spanning levels of organization, and [...] is probably an inevitable property that inherits from fundamental constraints on biological communication systems, rather than a pathology"
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
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A brief natural history of misinformation
Abstract. The idea that organisms benefit by acquiring information through social connections is a cornerstone of our understanding of social evolution and
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article/22/233/20250161/364004/A-brief-natural-history-of-misinformation
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Alex Mesoudi
about 1 month ago
New paper out in Phil Trans with Angel Jimenez, Keith Jensen and Lei Chang From information free-riding to information sharing: how have humans solved the cooperative dilemma at the heart of cumulative cultural evolution?
royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
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From information free-riding to information sharing: how have humans solved the cooperative dilemma at the heart of cumulative cultural evolution?
Abstract. Cumulative cultural evolution, where populations accumulate ever-improving knowledge, technologies and social customs, is arguably a unique featu
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/380/1940/20240258/363307/From-information-free-riding-to-information
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David Schultner
about 1 month ago
Very grateful that our paper was awarded ISCON’s Best 2024 Paper in Social Cognition!! Huge thanks to the fantastic team: Ben Stillerman,
@bjornlindstrom.bsky.social
,
@leorhackel.bsky.social
, Damaris Hagen, Nils Jostmann, and
@davidamodio.bsky.social
🎊💐
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Catherine Molho
about 1 month ago
🚨Two postdoc positions
@tse-fr.eu
@iast.fr
🚨 We are recruiting two postdocs as part of the ANR-funded project ENFORCE. Join me,
@giuliandr.bsky.social
, &
@zhgarfield.com
, to study punitive systems across societies. Full time, 2 years, no teaching. Deadline: Jan 23
www.tse-fr.eu/groups/depar...
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Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
https://www.tse-fr.eu/groups/department-social-and-behavioral-sciences?tabs=7
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Morten H. Christiansen
about 1 month ago
📣 Very happy to announce a new BBS target article with Nick Chater in which we propose a new theory of cultural evolution, highlighting the importance of bottom-up social interaction in explaining the emergence of cultural complexity 🧵 1/8
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/social-tinkering-the-social-foundations-of-cultural-complexity/8ABD9D2F90622F654C6CA0CBEF510E50?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark
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Björn Lindström
about 2 months ago
My paper is out! Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets.
rdcu.be/eQjLN
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A habit and working memory model as an alternative account of human reward-based learning
Nature Human Behaviour - In this study, Collins proposes an alternative dual-process (working memory and habit) model of reinforcement learning in humans.
https://rdcu.be/eQjLN
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Alex Mesoudi
about 2 months ago
Come and do a PhD at Exeter with me and Chico Camargo (Computer Science) on human-genAI coevolution "Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics"
www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr...
More details here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
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https://www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recruitmentsites/documents/studentshipprojects/Leveraging_Natural_Language_Processing_for_Data-Driven_Agent-Based_Modelling_of_Online_Cultural_Dynamics_-_Camargo_-_Ecology_and_Conservation-1.pdf
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Johan Lind
about 2 months ago
For this reason, we wrote this comment, published yesterday.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
We reason that 1) their data supports rather than rejects the sequence hypothesis, as monkeys and chimps did not perform with any precision in these sequential tasks. 7/n
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Philipp Kanske
about 2 months ago
Join us for this talk by
@janhaaker.bsky.social
on "A functional view on how we respond to others’ pain: Empathy, threat learning and neuropeptides" 11 November, 1pm CET
tu-dresden.de/mn/psycholog...
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Charley Wu | hiring PhDs/Postdocs
2 months ago
Just 1 week to apply! 4 year
@erc.europa.eu
funded PhD position working in an interdisciplinary team to study
#culturalEvolution
as a process of reuse, recombination, and creative re-engineering of past solutions. Details 👉
hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
🙏Please share!
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Dirk Wulff
2 months ago
🚨 New preprint 🚨 Are reinforcement learning models complete accounts of decisions from experience if they ignore explicit memory? In this new preprint, we show that people indeed form robust explicit memory representations that flexibly guide later decisions. 🔗 Preprint:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
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Paul Smaldino
2 months ago
Re-posting this because I really like it and I think we need to understand identity from a functionalist perspective more than ever.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Joe Bak-Coleman
3 months ago
I'm excited to finally have a preprint of this paper up, a few years in the making. In it we argue that industry-driven manipulation of social media research is well underway and that norms and institutions in the field are ill-prepared to resist tech's influence.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
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Charley Wu | hiring PhDs/Postdocs
3 months ago
Fully-funded 4-year
#PhD
in Cultural Evolution! Join my
@erc.europa.eu
project exploring how compression & compositionality drive cultural innovation:
hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
Apply by Nov 12! Maybe of interest to folks from
#COSMOS2025
or
@eslr.bsky.social
? Please feel free to share! 🙏
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ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution
ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution posted on October 16, 2025 We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual for a ful...
https://hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCulturalEvolution.html
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Stefano Palminteri
3 months ago
Very thought-provoking post by
@prakhargodara.bsky.social
. Is confirmation bias/positivity bias a statistical "ghost" of model specification? Specifically not including temporally decaying learning rates? The evidence suggests this is not the case and here is why (1/n)
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How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone? Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social
&
@ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘
arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
3 months ago
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Dominik Deffner
3 months ago
Which processes underlie collective intelligence in naturalistic human groups? In new work led by Valerii Chirkov, we show that payoff selectivity is key in transforming a group of individuals into an intelligent collective 🤝🧠
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7n...
Preprint:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
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First-Person Perspective of the Voluntary Payoff-Sharing (VP) Condition
YouTube video by Valerii Chirkov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7nzh4vF4o
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Richard McElreath 🐈⬛
3 months ago
"Dunbar's Number" is a zombie that lives forever in the science press it seems. Estimates of Dunbar's Number with 95% intervals, for a range of model specifications (from
doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
):
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Julian Jara-Ettinger
3 months ago
Our paper in annual review of dev psych is out! It's a big-picture look at the development of social cognition from a computational perspective:
compdevlab.yale.edu/docs/2025/an...
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https://compdevlab.yale.edu/docs/2025/annurev-devpsych-111323-112016.pdf
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Mark Ho | Hiring postdocs + PhD students
3 months ago
I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓 The CoDec Lab @ NYU (
codec-lab.github.io
) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠 Applications through Psych (
tinyurl.com/nyucp
) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
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codec lab
https://codec-lab.github.io/
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Mark Haselgrove
3 months ago
Am slowly making my way through this paper. And it is an impressive body of work by a collection of great researchers. However, I have a couple of problems with it... 1/n
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Lena Frischlich
3 months ago
The result of this super cool work with Henrik Olsson,
@abhishekr0y.bsky.social
,
@hdschulze.bsky.social
, Stan Rhodes, and Alison Mansheim can now be found online - and we hope you like it as much as we do 😍https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-025-00053-z- Core ideas also summarized below 🔽
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The complexity of misinformation extends beyond virus and warfare analogies
npj Complexity - The complexity of misinformation extends beyond virus and warfare analogies
https://rdcu.be/eI0Dm
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Dan Mirea
3 months ago
🚨Out now in
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
🚨 We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health. We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach. With
@yaelniv.bsky.social
and
@eriknook.bsky.social
Thread ⬇️
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Alejandro Pérez Velilla
3 months ago
I am happy to announce that our project on risk and social learning is now in press at Psychological Review. Several new additions and revisions thanks to detailed feedback from colleagues and anonymous reviewers.
osf.io/preprints/so...
@psmaldino.bsky.social
@babeheim.bsky.social
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Joshua Conrad Jackson
3 months ago
🚨New preprint🚨
osf.io/preprints/ps...
In a sample of ~2 billion comments, social media discourse becomes more negative over time Archival and experimental findings suggest this is a byproduct of people trying to differentiate themselves Led by
@hongkai1.bsky.social
in his 1st year (!) of his PhD
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Petter Holme
3 months ago
New paper in NHB 📄🚨 We ran extensive experiments to show that making the rules of some canonical economic games looser, makes people more cooperative
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Social networking agency and prosociality are inextricably linked in economic games - Nature Human Behaviour
Jia et al. experimentally show that when individuals can tailor their actions to each neighbour—a freedom termed social networking agency—they display higher levels of cooperation, trust and fairness in economic games.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02289-0
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Brandon C Davidson
4 months ago
🚨 New Preprint 🚨 Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to ‘Likes’ on social media. 🧵 Social media rewards are inherently social—but does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited? It turns out, yes!
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xavier roberts-gaal
4 months ago
We often hear from reviewers: "what about demand effects?" So we developed a method to eliminate them. Something weird happened during testing: We couldn’t detect demand effects in the first place! (1/8)
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Sheina Lew-Levy
4 months ago
@durhampsych.bsky.social
current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised! 3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution 2 to work with
@drboothroyd.bsky.social
on examining school-based body image interventions. Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
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Fees and Funding - Durham University
https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/psychology/postgraduate-study/funding/
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Gaia Molinaro
4 months ago
📢 New preprint! How do humans learn from arbitrary, abstract goals? We show that, when goal spaces can be compressed, costly working-memory processes give way to internalized reward functions, enabling efficient goal-dependent reinforcement learning.
@annecollins.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810
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Reward function compression facilitates goal-dependent reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning agents learn from rewards, but humans can uniquely assign value to novel, abstract outcomes in a goal-dependent manner. However, this flexibility is cognitively costly, making l...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.06810
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Joshua Conrad Jackson
4 months ago
@helenamiton.bsky.social
and I have a new paper out:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Past theories focus on how we evolve complex technologies (jet engines), but neglect cultural innovations that help us operate these technologies (pilot checklist) Paper has tons of examples and new theory!
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David Schultner
5 months ago
🎊 New paper out! In this
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
Forum, we (with
@lucasmolleman.bsky.social
and
@bjornlindstrom.bsky.social
) summarize how reward learning can lead to adaptive social learning. We also explore the broader consequences for cultural evolution:
www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
🚄
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Isabelle Hoxha
4 months ago
Ever wondered why you keep going to that restaurant with stale fries? Is it because you went often in the past (perseveration) or because you remember past good experiences better (positivity bias)? Our study out in PNAS investigates the normative basis for these biases
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Evolving choice hysteresis in reinforcement learning: Comparing the adaptive value of positivity bias and gradual perseveration | PNAS
The tendency to repeat past choices more often than expected from the history of outcomes has been repeatedly empirically observed in reinforcement...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2422144122
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Tom Schaul
4 months ago
Where do some of Reinforcement Learning's great thinkers stand today? Find out! Keynotes of the RL Conference are online:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Wanting vs liking, Agent factories, Theoretical limit of LLMs, Pluralist value, RL teachers, Knowledge flywheels (guess who talked about which!)
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Will Oremus
4 months ago
The funny thing is animals actually can suffer and we slaughter them by the billions but sure let’s have an existential panic over whether a software program screams when we turn it off
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Simon Columbus
4 months ago
⚡ Autumn 2025 Cooperation Colloquia ⚡ We are excited to announce the next run of Cooperation Colloquia. With
@talbotmandrews.bsky.social
,
@setayeshradkani.bsky.social
,
@kris-smith.bsky.social
,
@alexmesoudi.com
, & more. Every second Friday, 15:00 CE(S)T Sign up here:
list.ku.dk/postorius/li...
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manvir singh
4 months ago
Why do societies reliably develop strikingly similar traditions like dance songs, hero stories, shamanism & justice institutions? In a new BBS target article, I propose a theory for such "super-attractors" + cultural evolution more broadly. Now open for commentary:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Petter Törnberg
4 months ago
🚨 PhD Position at the University of Amsterdam 🚨 Join my team as a computer scientist / computational social scientist working on LLMs, social media, and politics. We offer freedom, impact, and an inspiring environment at one of Europe's leading universities. 🔗
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
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Vacancy — PhD Position on Improving Social Media Using Large Language Models
The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam is inviting applications for a fully funded PhD position in the NWO VIDI project "Improving Social Media Using L...
https://werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies/phd-position-on-improving-social-media-using-large-language-models-netherlands-14252
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Johan Lind
5 months ago
A bit late on this, but here we explore how cultural information can guide development of behavior & cognitive skills just like genes. Can cultural evolution result in teaching trajectories that promote incremental acquisition of complex tasks?
#culturalevolution
#developmentalpsychology
#modelling
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Tim Waring
5 months ago
🧠 Want to integrate cultural evolution into your course using award winning materials created by the field's experts, and get paid $2000 to do it? 💵 🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards. 🔖 Apply here:
vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
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Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
https://vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_50v5Kia9wT57578
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James Winters
5 months ago
🚨🚨 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
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Modelling the emergence of open-ended technological evolution
Humans stand alone in terms of their potential to collectively and cumulatively improve technologies in an open-ended manner. This open-endedness provides societies with the ability to continually exp...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.04828
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Catherine Molho
5 months ago
📣 New registered report in
@nathumbehav.nature.com
with Ivan Soraperra,
@jonathanschulz.bsky.social
, and Shaul Shalvi:
rdcu.be/eAcMA
With data from 7,978 participants in 20 countries, we find that information about negative externalities promotes prosociality, especially in guilt-prone individuals.
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Guilt drives prosociality across 20 countries
Nature Human Behaviour - This Registered Report of 7,978 people in 20 countries found that guilt and information about consequences drive prosocial behaviour. Guilt-prone individuals gave more when...
https://rdcu.be/eAcMA
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Ricard Solé
5 months ago
What is emergence? This is one of the most central ingredients of complexity, and a challenging one to formalize. Here's a paper by
@seanmcarroll.bsky.social
& Achyth Parola that attempts to classify different forms of emergence.
@manlius.bsky.social
@sfiscience.bsky.social
arxiv.org/pdf/2410.15468
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