Humans exhibit an astonishing variety of marriage systems. Sometimes monogamous, other times polygamous, occasionally we even marry ghosts. The diversity can seem to defy any general explanation. In my new piece for Works in Progress, I write about the Darwinian logic behind it. 1/

CALL: a PhD grant (3 years) to do a PhD with me at @cognitionens.bsky.social on the evolution of graphic codes. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/410213

How-- and why-- institutions work (when they do): "Guarding the Guardians" @jliep.bsky.social @aeon.co (with @marco-giancotti.bsky.social) (Plus- Bringing Up Baby) Getting along: roughlydaily.com/2026/02/16/i...

Looking forward to work with @fierycushman.bsky.social and @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social on the moral psychology of authority!

We are thrilled to announce that @lfitouchi.bsky.social has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship to work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University ! 👏 Huge congratulations for this incredible achievement!

Institutions are the social technologies that power our world, allowing us to rely on complete strangers every day of our lives. But how do we ensure that this trust isn’t misplaced? In this Essay, the game theorist Julien Lie-Panis explores what makes institutions function @jliep.bsky.social

New @aeon.co essay just out! On how institutions let us scale trust and cooperation - and when things start to unravel. Big thanks to editor Sam Dresser. For the more technical version, see thread & paper below👇

Demain, 12h heure française, lancement solennel de la v2 de Gallicagram ⌛

💡 Our new #preprint is available online! How do people adapt their decisions when priorities change? In our new study, we examine how the way people represent value shapes their ability to adjust in multi-goal environments. 🔗 OSF link: doi.org/10.31234/osf... It's a thread 🧵

🔺 New preprint 🔺 Why does poverty increase time discounting? With W. Frankenhuis and @danielnettle.bsky.social, we argue that current models do not account for discounting in *persistent* poverty, and show that a desperation threshold can! A quick 🧵

On my recent paper about linguistic intuition and the nature of language thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/how-i-stoo...

"if anything people are actually maybe too stubborn... there is more room to improve trust in reliable sources than to reduce trust in unreliable sources... instead of teaching lay people to be more critical than they already are"

1/ 📢 Come study cognitive science in Paris! The Master’s program in Cognitive Science at @ENS_ULM, @psl_univ, and @EHESS_fr is now accepting applications for the next academic year. 🗓 Deadline: February 24, 2026 💻 Apply here: master-cognitive-science.ens.psl.eu/en/applicati...

This call is currently open for a Humanistica-satellite event, that might interest people in computational humanities (and not only). It is supported by CultureLab and welcomes long papers as well as lightning talks and posters.

📢 CfP now open for the Computational Cultural Science Workshop (Paris, 18-19 May 2026) until 16 February. Topics of interest: *️⃣AI and cultural datasets *️⃣Theory-driven humanities research *️⃣Document-based modelling of historical and social processes *️⃣Cultural analytics 👉 c2s.sciencesconf.org

I am also hiring a PhD student (4-years, home student only to join the project, starting in September 2026🌏 Please share it widely! www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-her...

Thank you, @jeremyfaust.bsky.social, for this public service; we have all wanted to see the protocol of this deeply unethical trial being funded by RFK Jr in Guinea-Bissau, I’m grateful you obtained it and have published it insidemedicine.substack.com/p/scoop-the-...

Gallicagram dans Histoire & Mesure !

🚨Two weeks left to apply for our postdoc positions @tse-fr.eu @iast.fr 🚨 Join me, @giuliandr.bsky.social , & @zhgarfield.com, to study punitive systems across societies. Full-time positions, 2 years, no teaching Deadline: Jan 23 Please share and spread the word! www.tse-fr.eu/groups/depar...

I am hiring a 4y postdoc for my Leverhulme-funded project on the role of beliefs about what in/outgroup members believe/do about climate change in shaping pro-climate behaviours🌏 Start date: May 2026 at latest Deadline: Feb 8 Please share it widely! jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

I got wonderful news: I was granted a position of Max Planck independent group leader at the MPI for Empirical Aesthetics ⬇️ (@ae.mpg.de) in Frankfurt, which I'll join in early 2026. It's a huge honor: being trusted with academic freedom offered by MPG. My group will study the evolution of arts. 1/3

Why do humans have linguistic intuition? And why should you care? A short thread about my new paper in @cadlin.bsky.social This work has the most original insight I've ever had, a genuinely new idea about the nature of language cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/ca... 1/20

Big congratulations to Dr Nikhil Sharma on receiving the Kiel Life Science Postdoc Award 2025! His outstanding work in theoretical biology and evolutionary graph theory makes us proud. Well deserved! 👏 #KLS #MPIEvolBio www.evolbio.mpg.de/3847270/kiel... (Photo: Christian Urban, Kiel University)

Happy to share our latest study published in PNAS. Using data from 274,316 French students, we find that lower-SES students are less likely to wait for better university offers, even when waiting would lead to more prestigious or better-fit programs. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?

"individuals are usually conservative in the size of their lies to prevent punishment from interactions partners, and to maintain a reputation as honest interaction partners"

In case you don't know already, the journal Open Mind has a Bluesky account that automatically posts new papers: @openmindjournal.bsky.social The journal is diamond open access (free to read, free to publish) thanks to the support of MIT Press, Harvard Library, & MIT Library.

osf.io/preprints/ps... Preprint: Jan Pfänder and Hugo Mercier "The rational impression account of trust in science"

In a new paper, we show from longitudinal UK and France data that income volatility (fluctatuations month to month) are bad for mental and general health. And it is much badder than you would expect given the lowness of the low months: doi.org/10.1016/j.ss...

This is the way www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Resistance to authoritarianism is a coordination game. That's why universities and law firms and nonprofits can't let themselves be picked off one by one. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

My very first paper has just been published in Nature Human Behaviour! In it, we demonstrate that both a chatbot and a more traditional pedagogical intervention can help improve adolescents' knowledge of vaccines and their attitudes towards vaccination.

Ever wanted to read about an old problem almost nobody cares about anymore? Well, I wrote about it. 🧵

#HBES2026 abstract submissions are live! More exciting details to come soon. Arrive early for @ces2026.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social

📢 Apply to our (2-year) research fellowships at @iast.fr Join a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and indisciplinary group of scholars in Toulouse, walkable/cyclable pink city of chocolatines in the South of France. Deadline: November 15, 2025. www.iast.fr/research-fel...

"From this point of view, fairness really may be a universal law."

the functional form of moral judgment is (sometimes) the nash bargaining solution new preprint👇

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)

1/ Thrilled to share that my main PhD article has just been published in Nature Human Behaviour! 🎉 👉 “A randomised controlled trial on the effect of administrative burden and information costs on social inequalities in early childcare access in France” rdcu.be/eFAEA

I'm giving a free book talk next Wednesday at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Come by if you're in the Boston area!

👏 Huge congrats to @audeber.bsky.social, group leader and head of our Molecular Diversity of Microbes lab, on being named a 2025 Vallee Scholar! Her pioneering work on ancestral immunity opens new perspectives for biomedical innovation. 🔬🌍 @valleefoundation.bsky.social #Science #Immunity

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...

This week, we discuss the evolution of cooperation with Pat Barclay. youtu.be/-cHqagwF1yY?... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... www.podbean.com/eas/pb-f5gtf...

Very excited to see this published!

Our new paper is out in PNAS: "Evolving general cooperation with a Bayesian theory of mind"! Humans are the ultimate cooperators. We coordinate on a scale and scope no other species (nor AI) can match. What makes this possible? 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Arthur has written a wonderful, clear, super helpful introduction to contractualism as a foundation for moral psychology. Perfect for getting up to speed, teaching, a desk reference, or a sunny day at the beach. wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

So pleased to have won this award. Thank you @ceciliapad.bsky.social @gregoryfiorio.bsky.social @ruthmace.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social

Our paper on the logic of guesses is now out! We provide a new information-theoretic perspective on many phenomena (old and new) in judgment under uncertainty. 🧵