Did you know that the spinning top is one of the most common forms of traditional play worldwide? Our research found tops to be nearly universal across human cultures. Wherever you come from, your ancestors probably spun tops. New preprint: Top of the World osf.io/preprints/so... Thread:

Italian Inquisition was so worried about people publishing bad science, they set up their own laboratories to repeat experiments and censor studies that failed to replicate. Some very contemporary concerns in the 1600s.

I reviewed an earlier version of this paper. I think it's interesting, because you can tell by reading it that evolutionary psychology still lacks a loyal opposition and a healthy error culture. It's a defensive paper, targeted at people who believe evolution stops at the neck, YouTubers, _others_

1/ 🧵 New PNAS paper by CCE’s @michealdebarra.bsky.social @aiyanakoka.bsky.social with Angel V Jiménez and Nachita Rosun🎉 📄 Why do people turn to religious or supernatural cures? 🧪🏺 #evolpsy #evolanth #evolutionarybehaviouralsciences #culturalevolution

Agreement with "I look forward to going to school" crashes from 7/10 aged 8 to 2/10 aged 13 in England. 😥

I was surprised to see many friends habitually lie to their kids for convenience ("the sweet shop is closed today"). Not in our household: theconversation.com/parents-lie-...

Brick Experiment Channel gives such great physical examples of cumulative problem-solving innovation using nothing but legos.

Abandonment of Bloodletting in Nineteenth-Century Swedish Medicine: academic.oup.com/shm/advance-...

Get in touch if you are interested in a funded PhD on the cultural evolution of health behaviour (doi.org/10.1093/emph...) or communication (doi.org/10.1093/phe/...). Deadline 10th Jan www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Res...

Fully-funded PhD position available on the cultural evolution of tea! With me, Sabine Parrish, and David Burslem at the University of Aberdeen (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿), come combine anthropology and biology to think about why people drink tea and how that may change in the future. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I’m sadly not at #CES2024Durham but a ton of these rockstars are! go.bsky.app/8yXwjAn

New (open access) article in #ESR with #A_Patzina, #H_Dietrich, #M_Sandner Key finding: Young people’s life satisfaction strongly declined due to the pandemic. Particularly burdensome were travel restrictions, and the closure of bars/clubs. Mask wearing not so much. doi.org/10.1093/esr/...

Do people undergo medical treatments to demonstrate the legitimacy of their illness? New paper here: academic.oup.com/emph/article...