“A better understanding of how cultures evolve—how info is transmitted & modified, how we make decisions, how culture interacts with biology & other species—is a pressing issue in an increasingly interdependent world where cultural activities are causing rapid, drastic social & environmental change”

Thanks, @nautil.us for including my book Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer in your top 10 must reads to ring in the new year! nautil.us/the-nautilus...

There's also little evidence it has anything to do with hunting success would you beleive it. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Cultural Evolution paper alert 🚨

Cultural Evolution (Methods) paper alert 🚨

Joy to All! ❄️ We wish you all a very festive Christmas and a happy New Year!🎄✨ EHBEA is approaching, and we’re excited to welcome you! Check www.ehbea2026.com for new info on hotel deals and room-sharing options. Don’t forget: the abstract submission deadline is 9 January. See you in Leiden in 2026!

1/ 👩‍🎓 Big shout-out to Brunel PhD student Hannah Mays and supervisor @nelliferenczi.bsky.social from @brunelpsy.bsky.social for contributing written evidence on misogyny in the manosphere and online content to a major policy consultation

This week, we talk to @hugoreasoning.bsky.social about all things "epistemic". Are we gullible and prone to misinformation? Are we vigilant in favor of our interests? Enjoy the wide-ranging conversation! www.podbean.com/eas/pb-wphps... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... youtu.be/nf42LNg6y-A

Two-year post-doc position in my department working on a cool project applying cognitive science (transmission chain experiments and natural language processing) to study cultural evolution: tinyurl.com/bdeju6kw

1/ In a recent @britishacademy.bsky.social video @rebeccasear.bsky.social from @brunelpsy.bsky.social takes a clear-eyed look at the 21st‑century rise of eugenics - an ideology that should have been left behind, yet is now re‑emerging in a number of troubling ways ⚠️🧬 🧪 Watch the full talk here 🎥👇

Had a really fun chat with James Hodgson at Humanism Now about my book Disbelief....check it out! www.buzzsprout.com/2246305/epis... Book here, bound to make a confusing Christmas gift for many children on your list! www.globepequot.com/978163388925...

🚨 DEADLINE EXTENSION 🚨 For those who have not finished their abstracts, @ehbea2026.bsky.social is extending the abstract submission until JANUARY 9th!! Hope that the extra time allows us to see even more work in the evolution of human behaviour 🤓 🤩

EHBEA 2026 has extended the deadline till the 9th January #holidaymircale

We have already received many wonderful abstracts, thank you all! 🌟 For those who need a little extra time, we have good news: the #EHBEA2026 deadline has been extended to 9 Jan. ✍️✨ Add the finishing touches, hit submit, and join an exciting, inspiring conference! 👉 www.ehbea2026.com

Seems the NYT likes Leiden as much as we do 😉 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/t... BTW did you know that EHBEA 2026 will take place right in the middle of the renowned Dutch flower season? 🌼🌼 If you consider staying for one extra night you can enjoy the annual parade (“bloemencorso”) on the 18th 😇

EHBEA has a shiny new website and it looks lovely 😃 Many thanks to @amrotella.bsky.social for leading EHBEA through this change, with assistance from @pablovarase.bsky.social and @jeannebovet.bsky.social 🙏

Don’t forget to submit your #EHBEA2026 abstract before Dec 15! See you in beautiful Leiden in April! @ehbea2026.bsky.social @ehbea.bsky.social

the ✨new✨ @ehbea.bsky.social website www.ehbea.org is live and looking great! The (opt-in!) member directory is a fantastic addition, such a nice way to find people and connect!

does anyone know of cool open access datasets that would have variables relevant to fashion? people's impressions of or engagements with fashion, media, etc. any and all tips in this general area appreciated! it's for a student project

"We propose that the X-chromosome is a promising marker to explore the genetic underpinning of menopause in matrilineal whale species and could provide a key comparison (and contrast) to the genetic basis of menopause in humans" royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...

🚨 NEW AWARD DEADLINE 🚨 EHBEA is giving, for the first time, an award for those members who excel in reaching outside of academia with their research and evolutionary human sciences Don’t miss out the opportunity! Deadline? December 19, 2025 More information? 👇 👇 👇

🚨 DEADLINE ALERT 🚨 If you know someone who has contributed enormously to strengthening our community beyond our research please do not hesitate to nominate them! Deadline? December 19th, 2025 More information? 👇

Yes, @rebeccasear.bsky.social has a great piece on this www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Tomorrow I scheduled an interview with Ricardo @thedissenteryt.bsky.social on my book "Tecnopanico". Looking forward to it! This was five years ago on "Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age", so you will be able to check my hair getting whiter :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX0J...

"This Issue stems from the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund, designed to bridge the social & natural sciences, promote equity, diversity & inclusion & support work with policy relevance. This diversification of the CE field strengthens its capacity to positively shape global futures"

Excited to get this paper published! 🌟 We argue that men exaggerate patriarchal beliefs in an effort to signal conformity to others, which in turn fuels misperceptions about peers - making patriarchal norms resistant to change. royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

I see your Krampus and Mari Lwyd, and raise you Newfoundland Mummers as the most terrifying Christmas tradition 🎄❄️🧟‍♀️

God bless Szamado. He's completely correct and has been soldiering away at this for years - but the complexity of the topic is just slightly too high to outcompete Zahavi's (misleading) golf analogy. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

No-one writes a paper like Polly Wiessner. Here's her on conversations among the Ju/'Hoansi, contrasting daytime and nighttime talk. Proper quant research. Proper anthropology. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

📣 New BBS preprint out now! 📣 "Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified." doi.org/10.1017/S014...

I am pleased to announce that from Jan 1 2026 I take over as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biological Theory. My first act, with the support of the editorial team, is to bring the journal to BlueSky from X. Please follow us @biologicaltheory.bsky.social. We will be posting about all our articles.

This video was made about our folk medicine project. It talks about our recent PNAS project, and also this study we did in Mauritius www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

On a roll with papers this week. PNAS paper with @michealdebarra.bsky.social giving some evidence to the idea that people turn to the supernatural because of uncertainty about causal processes. BONUS of curing whooping cough with donkeys and warts with snails 🐌

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

At last, the final publication in 'Cognitive Technologies and their Histories': the editorial introduction to the issue in TopiCS, by myself and @helenamiton.bsky.social. 4.5 years since our initial @cogscisociety.bsky.social panel. Free access! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com Experimental evidence that reputation-based partner choice facilitates information sharing in humans Date: December 5 Time: 15:00 UTC+1 (Vienna) / 9 am ET (NYC) Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

Working my way slowly through the @manymindspod.bsky.social back catalogue. This one with @iyadrahwan.bsky.social is really good on a cultural evolution analysis of machine / digital culture podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...

🚨 AWARD DEADLINE 🚨 If you are, or know someone, doing really cool research as an early-career researcher…EHBEA is calling for SELF-nominations on their New Investigator Award. Deadline? December 19th, 2025 More information below 👇

Kudos to Rebecca for leading this charge! Lynn's data is an embarrassment to the scientific enterprise. The skull measurers on Twitter are having a predictable response with the repeated claim that "other data replicate" Lynn's results. Easy to see that's not true for the 2002, 2012, or "new" set

Many congratulations to the newly-minted Dr Baafi @josephineabaafi.bsky.social 🎉🥳 who passed her PhD viva yesterday! A very positive experience thanks to examiners Monica Magadi and @joestrong.bsky.social, and Chair @1verofilippi.bsky.social 🙏

🧵 1/ Excited to share this work from CCEs Francisco Gómez Jiménez, whose research explores gender diversity across cultures 🌍 Francisco introduces the muxes of the Istmo Zapotec community in Oaxaca, Mexico - a remarkable example of longstanding, culturally grounded gender diversity 🏳️‍🌈 🎥👇

1/ 🎙️ New paper by Dr Aiyana Willard argues it’s time to retire HADD = “we’re hardwired to see agents EVERYWHERE” and replace it with something that *actually* fits the evidence 🪦➡️📚 @brunelpsy.bsky.social 🔗 Read it 👇

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 😊

Congratulations to the Cognitations podcast, which was awarded an @ehbea.bsky.social grant to support the excellent work they're doing in public communication 🎉 This year, and for future years, we broadened the criteria for workshop grants to include non-academic events & public engagement

Thank you to @willgervais.com for visiting with my psych of religion seminar yesterday! Such a treat to discuss his nifty work on different pathways to atheism: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.....

🚨 DEADLINE 🚨 EHBEA is searching for people who wants to help in the development of the evolutionary human sciences 👀 Do you feel like it? Then apply for PRESIDENT and/or SECRETARY for 2026-2029! Deadline? December 16/12/2025 More information?👇 👇 👇

. @rebeccasear.bsky.social is on a mission to get all studies using a database linking #IQ and race retracted. I spoke to her for @retractionwatch.com to find out more: retractionwatch.com/2025/11/25/m...

Working on some cool project about human evolution? Do not hesitate to submit an abstract for @ehbea2026.bsky.social 🙌 Deadline? December 15th More info? Below 👇