Woo new paper! Cross-cultural investigation into maternal responses to infant distress How babies are soothed may be more important than how quickly, which vary cross-culturally w/Carlo Vreden & team in #DevelopmentalPsychology! Open-access link + thread 👇 psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Durham Psychology is hiring! The department is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in forensic psychology, woo! Come join us, we're a friendly and vibrant dept and Durham is beautiful! Please see info here and reach out with any Qs. durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

This is one of the best ideas I've heard in ages.

A study by @zannaclay.bsky.social, Carlo Vreden suggests that babies possess a powerful capacity for empathy long before they can walk or talk.As babies grow and develop, this sensitivity can develop into a deeper understanding of others' emotions and the motivation to care for them. 1/2 @psyche.co

Changes in facial skin temperature are measured using thermal imaging, which can help scientists better understand underlying emotional states. Research paper is published in the @psyche.co Image provided by developmental psychologists @zannaclay.bsky.social and Carlo Vreden. 2/2

This looks brilliant topic wise- Though it's a pity that only 2 of the 10 speakers are women. There are so many great women scientists who could have provided excellent contributions for a more balanced programme - @asab.org

What contagious crying and comforting in infants tell us about the roots of emotional connection We wrote a piece in @psyche.co magazine about our research on #empathy in infants @durhampsych.bsky.social psyche.co/ideas/were-l...

WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for. Stop using WeTransfer.

Social determinants of health: A reanalysis shows that the link between maternal sociality and infant survival in Amboseli baboons is actually driven by state-dependent changes in maternal social behaviour I missed this when it came out, so sharing in case you did too www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Birds as pride flags, meticulously researched by my wonderful student Griffin ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 Rainbow flag: Eastern Rosella 📷 David Irving, eBird

Some fancy chocs arrived to thank me for my review for the Branco Weiss Fellowship, very thoughtful The Swiss do things better 😊

Remembering the time I threw a geology-paleontology themed Bday party for the kids. Filled a kiddie pool with sand, real fossils & rocks, then had the kids dig & ID their finds for Geo-Paleo Bingo. Ended by exploding a giant Coke & Mentos volcano at the dig site. 😅 #AcademicParents

Last year, Charity, one of my research assistants in Uganda, faced the terrible life challenge of having her leg amputated. We've been supporting her, but she is now at critical point in her rehabilitation and needs more support. Anything you can give will help www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

🚨 New paper alert 🚨 Collaboration between @yorkpsychology.bsky.social and @durhamdcerc.bsky.social / @durhampsych.bsky.social A longitudinal, cross cultual, study on infant development of concern & comforting: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... @zannaclay.bsky.social

New paper alert!👶🚼 The #crosscultural development of infant #empathy We compared the #development of concern & comforting in 9 and 18m olds from rural Uganda and UK - we found many similarities but also diffs open-access in @PLOSONE ! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Here's an article we did for @theconversation.com about our new study looking at #empathy in chimpanzees and bonobos, and why we need to move beyond stereotypes theconversation.com/our-ape-cous...

Some coverage from the #BBC about our study comparing the empathic tendencies of chimpanzees and bonobos www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New paper alert! - number 2 Social contagion underpins key elements of social interaction, including empathy & social learning. Here, we review research on primate social contagion and offer a unifying framework available open-access! 👇👇 w/ Georgia Sandars www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New paper alert! Bonobos are often cited as the 'most empathic ape' yet a comparison to their chimp cousins has never been done. So we directly compared their consolation tendencies We found big overlaps between the two species plus considerable within-species variation open-access link below!

📣We are hiring! Join us as a Career Development Fellow, full-time, fixed-term post from this September. To read more and apply 👉 bit.ly/42XI93k Deadline 22nd May. #academicjobs #psychology #psychologyjobs

The loss of a legend- Kanzi, the language-competent bonobo, has died age 44. Kanzi was exceptional in so many ways and offered us profound insights into the linguistic & cognitive capacities of great apes. He has taught us so much and will be hugely missed. www.apeinitiative.org/remembering-...

Annual Conference of the Cognition, Behavior and Evolution Network in Antwerp, September 18-19, 2025 With keynotes by @zannaclay.bsky.social, Koen Margodt, and Leda Cosmides. Submission deadline May 1 www.uantwerpen.be/en/about-uan...

It was wonderful to host @zannaclay.bsky.social for our @bristolbiosci.bsky.social seminar this week - fascinating research on the origins of empathy, w/ experimental data from great apes and cross-cultural studies of human infants. Such an interesting topic and provoked lots of discussion after!

Inside the sex lives of chimpanzees: like humans and other species, it’s about much more than just reproduction New piece in @ConversationUK about our new @royalsociety research study on the social role of sex in chimps and bonobos. @durhampsych.bsky.social theconversation.com/inside-the-s...

Despite assumptions of bonobos as sexy hippies and chimps as aggressive, we found that both species overlap in their use of sex to navigate social problems and repair social bonds Coverage from the @newscientist about our new study published in @royalsociety www.newscientist.com/article/2470...

New paper alert! Sex and strife in our closest ape relatives Our paper in @RSocPublishing shows that bonobos and chimpanzees overlap in their use of sex during social tension -w Jake Brooker and coauthors inc the late Frans de Waal, his last paper royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Bonobos have long been renowned for the way they use sexual behaviour in their societies. Now eye-opening work by researchers including @zannaclay.bsky.social shows that chimpanzees also use a rich repertoire of sexual behaviour to manage their social lives www.newscientist.com/article/2470...

Heading back to Uganda today! For this trip, we are fundraising to support children's education in the community where we conduct research. Most families cannot secondary school fees and the primary school desperately needs resources. Thanks for any donation! www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

“Overall, our results support the view that infants within the first year of life experience emotional contagion in response to peer distress, an effect that is not just explained by the aversive nature of the stimuli.” Interesting methods from @zannaclay.bsky.social & co on infant emotion contagion

Excited to share a new paper! The development of emotion contagion- out in #DevSci We used the cool method of infra-red thermal imaging to examine #EmotionContagion in #infants using a #crosscultural sample from Uganda and UK @durhampsych.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This year, we tragically lost a giant of our field- Frans de Waal. Not only a brilliant thinker, Frans was, above all, an incredibly supportive and enabling mentor. In this piece, now out in Am J Primatology, we reflect on Frans, our mentor onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Biology has lost one of its greatest thinkers - Frans de Waal I was asked to write a short piece for the NeurosciBiobehav Revs to mark his passing and collosal impact- link should be open access but alternative if not Frans is so greatly missed www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Biggest congratulations to Fanny Minesi- Director of Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary & Ekolo Bonobo Reintroduction project- for winning the prestigious Tusk Award for Conservationin Africa! Fanny works tirelessly for the conservation of bonobos in the DR Congo. Bravo! www.tuskawards.com/fanny-minesi...