gillianrbrown1.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

The looks great: “cross-cultural developmental research poses distinct problems for ensuring high construct validity, owing to the nuances of working with children; the standard approach of transporting protocols designed & validated in one population to another risks low construct validity”

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

New cultural evolution modelling paper with @bdecourson.bsky.social on @pnas.org! "Weak individual preferences stabilize culture" A quick 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

"Genes are... the easy part" @philipcball.bsky.social argues biologists need to embrace complexity from the start, rather than beginning with oversimplified "one gene, one trait" models +1 www.cell.com/cell-systems...

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

[email protected], @birchlse.bsky.social, and I have a new piece on animal consciousness at @science.org! We explain how this topic can be studied scientifically, and why current evidence supports a realistic possibility of consciousness in all vertebrates and many invertebrates.

submitted 3 days ago • 5 comments

Gender imbalance in citations most pronounced in high-impact neuroscience journals https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.19.638905v1

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

A rebuttal of the paper that looked at historical samples and found evidence of natural selection due to the Black Death at immune loci. Multiple lines of evidence, incl that observed freq changes were an artefact. By Alison Barton, @mathiesoniain.bsky.social et al www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

A new round of the Lise Meitner Excellence Program for #tenuretrack group leaders opened today - please consider applying! The program aims to recruit and promote exceptionally qualified female scientists. www.mpg.de/lise-meitner... #LiseMeitnerGroups #WomeninScience #ScienceCareer

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Characterizing the Interaction of Cultural Evolution Mechanisms in Experimental Social Networks https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.12847 Understanding how cognitive and social mechanisms shape the evolution of complex artifacts such as songs is central to cultural evolution research. Social network t...📈🤖

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I have a new paper about these cute little guys (and some girls)! White-necked Jacobins are interesting because all males and some but not all (!) females are brightly colored. The scientific question is why some but not all females? (Img credit: Kate & Sam)

submitted 4 days ago • 7 comments

New paper! doi.org/10.1098/rsos... Many of the world’s languages are endangered, but how we identify which are endangered is essentially by counting how many people speak that language. …but…

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

Join us in Durham Anthropology - we’re hiring an Assistant Prof in Anthropology of Data Science. durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

New paper: "Kin-discriminating partner choice promotes the evolution of helping" with Tom Scott (@tomwscott.bsky.social) & Geoff Wild (@geoffwild.bsky.social) #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/evol... @journal-evo.bsky.social #Image: #ChatGPT #Evolution #OA

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

New paper alert! Led by the amazing Margherita Colucci and @mikleonardi.bsky.social, with @chrisbstringer.bsky.social, and Jason Hodgson, we explore the legacy of Luca Cavalli-Sforza on human evolution. Thanks to @louneschikhi.bsky.social who led this volume. www.pivotscipub.com/hpgg/5/1/000...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Birkbeck's offering fully-funded PhD studentships as part of its Diversity 100 scheme. If you qualify as a Home student, & come from an ethnic background that's underrepresented in academia, you're eligible! If that sounds like you, and you'd like to discuss PhDs in my lab, please do get in touch.

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

WEIRD Questions: Diversifying Conceptual Sampling: http://osf.io/vxcrj_v1/

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

An evolutionary perspective on altercentrism: http://osf.io/h5qn7_v1/

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Reminder of this #culturalevolution starter pack go.bsky.app/6mZJyQq

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

Princeton University Press are currently offering 40% off my 'Evolution Evolving' book if you subscribe to their newsletter: press.princeton.edu/newsletter-s...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Michael presented this when he came to talk to @brunelcce.bsky.social recently - really fascinating stuff, with obvious implications for interpreting cognitive tests across cultures: there is unlikely ever to be a cognitive test which will measure cognitive ability effectively across cultures

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Interesting preprint from Michael Muthukrishna and colleagues. #ehbea #psychology #psychsci

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Kevin Lala on Genes Culture and Scientific Racism underline.io/lecture/1051...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

The third edition of 'Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour', co-authored with @kevinlala.bsky.social , is available to purchase! Get 30% off via the OUP website (code ASPROMP8): global.oup.com/academic/pro... Thank you to @rebeccasear.bsky.social for the endorsement!

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

New paper with Daniel Haun in Child Development Perspectives 📝🤓 “Two Gaps in Studying High-Fidelity Imitation” All feedback welcome srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Call for Applications 2025: Lise Meitner #Research Groups https://www.mpg.de/lise-meitner-excellence-program Programme by the @maxplanckgesellschaft designed to attract and specifically promote exceptionally qualified female #scientists deadline April 08th, 2025. note that you should contact […]

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

For those who missed the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social conference in Durham last September, the recorded talks are now freely available to watch here: underline.io/events/456/l...

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

Come and work with us... the School of Psychology is advertising for psychology lecturers and one is specifically for Health Psychology. jobs.surrey.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Just received my copy of this fascinating book! The most concise and richest history of eugenics! theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/fal...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Do we love nature because it’s just in our nature? Probably not. Check out our latest article in TREE, where we make the case! authors.elsevier.com/a/1kZlOcZ3X3...

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Here @drlynnchiu.bsky.social interviews me about my new 'Evolution Evolving' book. I dicuss some of the data suggesting that developmental plasticity, learning and animal culture can affect evolution. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih_C... #behavior #culture #animalculture

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Does poverty lead to risk taking or risk avoidance? Turns out, to both. Our new paper (with D. Nettle & W. Frankenhuis) in @royalsocietypublishing.org explains why, and conducts preregistered tests of our ‘desperation threshold’ model. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... A 🧵

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Looking for a first intro to theoretical models in cultural evolution? For yourself or your students? 🔍 In our chapter for an upcoming @ehbea.bsky.social textbook, we outline what models are for, what questions they address, and how they can be coded in R! Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

Hello, Bluesky! ☀️ We fund frontier research in Europe—bold ideas, unexpected discoveries and science that shapes the future. So it’s only fitting we’ve landed here. Sorry for being late. Follow us for updates on ERC funding, research policy, and our grantees' discoveries.

submitted 16 days ago • 42 comments

Is #EHBEA2025 worth the trip to Newcastle?? Definitely! Let us show you why -- First up, the Newcastle Quayside – in daytime: stunning riverside views and vibrant culture! 🌊✨ Take a gorgeous stroll along the Tyne to admire the iconic bridges, and soak in the lively atmosphere. #LoveTheTyne [1/3]

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

💥Two 💥 post-doc positions open in my @erc.europa.eu ERC-funded group. In an interdisciplinary, collaborative setting, we use different types of modeling (e.g., reinforcement learning) and human experiments to understand social learning and cultural evolution. Get in touch if you have any questions!

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

My latest story for National Geographic, about the similarities between whale song and human language, featuring @inbalarnon.bsky.social, @simonkirby.bsky.social, @ellengarland.bsky.social, @masonyoungblood.bsky.social and @rferrericancho.bsky.social!

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

How do languages become learnable for young children? Our new paper in Current Biology shows how “Immature vocalizations elicit simplified adult speech across multiple languages.” 🧵 of our findings below: www.cell.com/current-biol... 1/9

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

How did #hominins end up with that peculiar life-history stage called #childhood? And how should we test hypotheses on the evolution of trait complexes like it? Adrian Currie & I have a new paper out in Studies in HPS bringing these issues to the table 🧪🏺 #hpbio #philsci #Philsky #humanevolution

submitted 66 days ago • 3 comments

Americans Underestimate National Levels of Concern for Future Generations: Evidence Across Collective, Governmental and Moral Considerations: http://osf.io/xnpby_v1/

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

We uncovered the same statistical structure that is a hallmark of human language in whale song, published today in Science. @inbalarnon.bsky.social @simonkirby.bsky.social @jennyallen13.bsky.social @clairenea.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 17 days ago • 17 comments

Turns out a bunch of philosophers have independently used the #niche concept to think about science. @sabinaleonelli.bsky.social and I looked into these and built a framework for research niches. Paper coming out in #EJPS soon, preprint up at philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24675/

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

Its been great to work with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social on the 3rd edition of our book "Sense and Nonsense. Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour". Thanks to Sarah Hrdy for this nice endorsement. Get a 30% discount with code ASPROMP8 at shorturl.at/mmMID @oxfordunipress.bsky.social

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Very useful perspective on 'mechanism' in biology Becomes particularly important to define and understand what we mean by mechanism when it becomes a stick to beat researchers with during peer review - if three reviewers have different ideas of mechanism this can be very difficult to navigate

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Do whales optimize their vocalizations for efficiency, just like human language? 🐋🎶 My latest study in Science Advances (@science.org) suggests they do—following linguistic laws seen in human speech. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 18 days ago • 5 comments

Change over time is often depicted as a trendline. But what does shape a trendline? Which forces? Our new paper presents a method allowing to “decompose” trendlines into constituent forces. Also, we tackle an old puzzle: Does culture change “one funeral at a time”? 🧵(1/8) doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

submitted 18 days ago • 2 comments

Deadline is this Thursday, February 6. ⏳

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

I love this new promo video about my new 'Evolution Evolving' book, produced by Magdalena Fischer. She did a fantastic job. You can order 'Evolution Evolving' at shorturl.at/YZac0 @princetonupress.bsky.social @drlynnchiu.bsky.social #evolution #evodevo #behavior

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

For social psychologists looking for a more permanent home in the UK, Oxford Experimental Psychology Department @oxexppsy.bsky.social is hiring. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment