Another new preprint from my lab, led by Erin McHugh in collaboration with Megan Bontrager. Mutualism has long been thought to expand a species' niche, an idea supported by case studies. We found support (mostly) for this idea across 2600+ legumes from around the globe: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Do you stay home or go out when you're sick? This week, we talk to @joshackman.bsky.social about the psychology of pathogens. youtu.be/Jq3K_Ck0EQY podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... www.podbean.com/eas/pb-29ph7...

Why is lower wealth often associated with greater empathy? New work at SPPS w @jessicadayers.bsky.social Yul Kwon Peter Todd @athenaaktipis.bsky.social shows lower wealth cultivates empathy via challenges and helping - but only among moderate helpers🧵https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506261449280

Announcing new diacritical improvements in eHRAF hraf.yale.edu/font-selecti...

Thinking about pursuing a career in personality and social psychology? Jessica D. Ayers recommends having fun, finding a topic you're passionate about, and striving to find work-life balance. Learn more in our latest SPSP Member Spotlight: https://ow.ly/MKzi50Z4T5v

Why is lower wealth often linked to greater empathy? New research suggests it comes down to experiencing more challenges, helping others more, and building empathy over time. Read more in #SPPS: https://ow.ly/jXZb50Z4KZE

What makes religious fasting prosocial? Hunger usually makes people more selfish, impulsive, and aggressive — so why does fasting seem to do the opposite? That was the question at the heart of my talk at the 37th meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Rabat, Morocco last week.

Maybe it depends on how concerned about germs you are (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...)? 😀 Wish we knew about your measure when we did our studies! Cool stuff.

Do you want a lot of friend, or only a few that your really close with? In our new paper, we ( @psycheddiego.bsky.social D. Mercado & @athenaaktipis.bsky.social) present the concept, structure, and validation of friendship making orientation kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Online Now: How developing prosocial motivations shape children’s altruism

There is a fully-funded PhD position at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to pursue dissertation research among the Mayangna of Nicaragua, expanding a longitudinal study of subsistence strategies and behavioral ecology. Please share the posting! www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit...

How do people respond to a partner’s positive and negative outcomes when faced with challenging information? We (Shanshan Ma Erin Maresh Andrea Coppola @mehlmr.bsky.social Jessica Andrews-Hanna & @dsbarra.bsky.social) tackle this in new work at Affective Science: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our work investigating how sources of fitness interdependence are associated with shared fate (summary estimate of interdependence) and guide cooperation in a small-scale subsistence society is available at EHB (see thread for summary) www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513825001515

How do people know whom, and how much, to help? we (@jessicadayers.bsky.social @leecronk.bsky.social Daniel Balliet @jeremykoster.bsky.social & @athenaaktipis.bsky.social) tackle this question among the Mayangna of northern Nicaragua, who rely primarily on horticulture for subsistence 🧵(1/10).

Application still open! Are you interested in interdependence and cooperation, understanding the psychology of people living in subsistence communities, cross-cultural generalizability + variation? This might be the right place for you!

Updated application portal is now live! arizona.csod.com/samldefault....

The SPECIEs Lab (Psychology department - UArizona) is looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join the team (please share)! Start date: Summer-Fall 2026 Review: until filled Duration: 3-years Materials: 1-2 page cover letter, CV, 2-3 reference contacts Send materials to: [email protected]

I’m happy to announce that our paper "The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter" has now been published in Evolution and Human Behavior. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New paper with Ben Morris and Alex Shaw out last week in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social! We find that children are sensitive to who has better evidence when evaluating how people behave in disagreements. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/3

New study just out! 🚨 We created a way to rewind and fast forward through cultural differences in China. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natureportfolio.nature.com

Interdependence strongly guides partner choice, giving help, and getting help from people in your network #EPatSPSP2026 @spspnews.bsky.social

@psycheddiego.bsky.social talks to us about cooperation and interdependence in the Mayangna

New article out exploring great ape name recognition! We find partial evidence that zoo-living chimps & bonobos know each other's names 👀 Huge thanks to Animal Behavior and Cognition (a great open-access journal) & co-authors for your collaboration!🎉🐵 unsvr1.com/web/abc/work...

How do people decide whom to help when cooperation is costly and resources are limited? Kinship and reciprocity are not the full story—research by @psycheddiego.bsky.social et al suggests shared fate (the other person’s outcomes influences one’s own) complements: buff.ly/fRinBjR

Introducing PowerLMM.js! A new tool for power analysis of longitudinal linear mixed-effects models (LMMs) – with support for missing data, plus non-inferiority and equivalence tests. powerlmmjs.rpsychologist.com Would really appreciate your feedback as I refine this app! Details below 🧵👇

As we head toward #SAS2026 we are excited to partner with @inclivio.com to support EMA research in affective science. If you’re attending the conference, like (1 entry) and repost (3 entries) this post to enter a drawing for 1 of 3 licenses to run your study on Inclivio for *free*. inclivio.com

Updated application portal is now live! arizona.csod.com/samldefault....

Our partnership with the @inclivio.com continues as we get closer to #SAS2026. Inclivio provides EMA researchers with tools that make data collection easier and more participant friendly. Like (1 pt) and repost (3 pts) to enter a drawing for free access to Inclivio! inclivio.com

In our new American Psychologist paper, we debunk the decades old zombie idea that evolutionary psychology is unfalsifiable. 🧵

Very happy to see our ice-fishing paper on the cover of @science.org this week! 🎣🎉 We tracked large groups of Finnish competitive ice-fishers to study how social foragers use social information when searching for resources. 🐟 Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (contact me for open access)

I gave my undergrad RA 3 research ideas to pick from and said this is like picking his starter Pokémon. He asked me where’s Pikachu 😂 Pikachu is a self-generated idea!

The SPECIEs Lab (Psychology department - UArizona) is looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join the team (please share)! Start date: Summer-Fall 2026 Review: until filled Duration: 3-years Materials: 1-2 page cover letter, CV, 2-3 reference contacts Send materials to: [email protected]

"strong evidence for the possibility that romantic jealousy approximates optimal design for infidelity detection--with up to 89% of the variance in jealousy explained by the posterior probability of infidelity computed using Bayes' Theorem"

Here's the link to our ever-expanding Collections! journals.sagepub.com/collection-i...

🚨 Using data from hundreds of wild pregnant meerkats, Thorley et al. show that gestational growth varies widely, is shaped by nutrition but not social conditions, and improves pup survival without shortening telomeres. 📖 Read the full paper here ➡️ buff.ly/2k2dKwt

A list of 7 claims about empathy that many people agree with, but that are likely wrong. compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

📢 Job opening: Rutgers Anthropology is hiring a Postdoctoral Associate in Evolutionary Medicine & Human Behavior Focus: interdisciplinary research on kinship, gendered labor, disability, and evolutionary medicine. Priority review: Jan 3, 2026. www.hbes.com/post-doctora...

I haven't seen this posted on here but the American Journal of Human Biology has run an In Memoriam on Jane Lancaster: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Thanks again, @epthepod.bsky.social, for having me! 🎧 💬 We discussed three research agendas in quite some depth: exploitation, identity & ingroup favoritism, and heroic behavior. 😊 Dave & David are wonderful hosts! After our conversation, I'm even more enthusiastic... 🫵 Can we inspire you too?

"We therefore encourage policymakers to consider designing interventions to maximize reductions in absolute poverty rather than focusing on inequality per se."

EHBEA awarded a workshop grant this year to researchers aiming to strengthen evolutionary approaches to the study of behaviour in Chile & elsewhere in Latin America, as we're keen to use these awards for outreach beyond our usual community. Congrats to the organisers, & hope the workshop goes well 😊

ASU Psychology is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Scholar to study contemporary antisemitism (supervised by Drs. Neuberg & Barlev). Full-time research, NIH salary scale, start date Jan 12, 2026 (flexible). Deadline: Dec 17, 2025. More info: apply.interfolio.com/177756

My time as Editor of AMPPS is coming to an end-- here are some parting thoughts. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... .

Hadley Wickham made a GenZ version of dplyr 😂 hadley.github.io/genzplyr/

In an increasingly divided world, how do strangers become friends? Parakeets might have something to teach us! New paper on formation of affiliative relationships, led by Dr. Claire O’Connell doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

Missed the deadline? This just in!! Preconference submissions will remain OPEN until Monday (10/27) at 8 am ET!!! Don’t let this opportunity pass you by! @ahrako.bsky.social @spspnews.bsky.social #EPatSPSP2026

Do we really keep score in our friendship? See what @athenaaktipis.bsky.social and I have to say about why this isn’t always the case theconversation.com/friendships-...

More than a decade of effort went into this magnificent dataset. What an incredible public good. People need to know how hard it is to do rigorous empirical work in political science.

If you could win a prize by guessing the number on a die 🎲 hidden under a cup, would you want to guess before the die was rolled, or after? The odds of winning are the same in both, but they can feel different. 🧵