Why is romantic kissing so common yet not Universal. Samani & Thomas argue that it is easy for people to learn because of universal intuitions about close bodily contact and social intimacy, and that it arises when people need to distinguish romantic relationships and other intimacy relationships!

Hi everyone! My paper on cognitive representations of relationships and their developmental origins is finally out! I had a blast responding to the commentary and was honored to be able to engage with people who laid the foundation for my research program. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Surely you're not the first person to point this out, which means... your complaint that Elika's complaint that everything is old is itself old is also itself old?

You know what? Just a big F*CK YOU to every scumbag who had a hand in rising of this festering organized RACISM. And another one to all those who spent their whole lives flexing their western values, Iranians in western academia included, and are now swallowing their tongues. Point. قرمساقا

#Iran is in blackout: no internet, no connection. We’re completely cut off, with no way to reach or hear from our loved ones. In this silence, the mullahs are preparing to unleash yet another massacre against people who are protesting for their freedom.

This paper is like a souvenir of one of the most frantic and meaningful periods of my life — started during a war and travel bans and now published amid social protests in my home country. Many thanks to @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social for her amazing warmth and support throughout this journey!

1/ Romantic kissing 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨 is common across cultures—but NOT universal. Of note, societies with little contact seem to “reinvent” it. We argue this is b/c kissing sits in a cultural basin of attraction carved by our early‑emerging understanding of intimacy. 🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My very personal story about how I discovered evolutionary psychology. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Many people from my lab are presenting exciting work at SRCD!

Yay for replication! I'm thrilled that scholars I admire so much put the time and effort into replicating our work!

🚨New Paper Klaxon 🚨 Belief in Belief: Even Atheists in Secular Countries Show Intuitive Preferences Favoring Religious Belief. Now out at PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Here's a quick 🧵 on what we did and found!👇 1/ 11 🧪 #atheism #religion #culture #evolution

The world is on fire, but three post-baccs from my lab got offers to PhD programs! All women of color who are going to do amazing things! And whose research interests and amazing ideas are informed by their lived experiences as a Black woman, a Taiwanese woman, and a Mexican woman.

Conveniently published for Valentine's Day, here's a cute study about the evolution of teddy bears we did with @hsamani.bsky.social, @edgardubourg.bsky.social, @oliviermorin.bsky.social & many others 🐻 brill.com/view/journal...

New Daedalus issue on the science of caregiving. In our paper, we ask, how might infants experience caregiving? Writing this paper with Christina Steele, @alisongopnik.bsky.social and @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social was incredibly fun. Our paper and the other awesome pieces here: www.amacad.org/daedalus

I do not know the organizers of this event personally, but I'm thrilled to see that there are still people in Iran determined to break through the regime's barriers and passionately connect with cutting-edge science of the mind. Kudos to all of them :)