Evolutionary Social Psychology Co-Laboratory

Interested in joining us as a PhD student in the Fall? It's a great idea, but don't take our word for it, here's what the man who wrote the book on persuasion @RobertCialdini has to say youtube.com/watch?v=4rXVxi… Apply now psychology.asu.edu/degrees/specia…

free access for the next 50 days here: doi.org/10.1016/bs.aes… #CulturalChange #SocialPsychology #TimeSeries #CulturalEvolution #Psychohistory

1/ NEW in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology — our first review of a decade+ of research on understanding & predicting cultural change, w Michael Varnum. This one is personal. A thread on what we found, what surprised us, and how two kids reading Asimov ended up here. 🧵

Are sex differences in direct aggression always present? Data from 24 countries suggests not in sibling relationships researchgate.net/publication/39…

A new framework to integrate psychology + geography with @FriedrichMGoetz, Dan Montello, & Davide Luca researchgate.net/publication/39…

2 big new papers from KNBV’s Michael Varnum & @DouglasTKenrick, 1 in Nature Human Behaviour, 1 in PNAS Nexus with lab alums Amanda Kirsch & @Cari_Pick 🧵

@MohammadAtari90 @JoHenrich @MortezDehghani @DOyserman @JF_Schulz @JonHaidt @cam_lab_umass Congratulations! Well-deserved!

Thanks to my mentors, collaborators, and students. @JoHenrich @MortezDehghani @DOyserman @JF_Schulz @JonHaidt @cam_lab_umass

A tribute of remarkable richness and insight by @sapinker honouring his intellectual predecessor Donald Symons (1942-2023). Symons' 1979 book "The Evolution of Human Sexuality" gave rise to an entire field of study, and remains influential to this day. quillette.com/2025/02/04/sag…

@JaimieKrems @CostelloWilliam See also journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Why are WOMEN higher in NEUROTICISM? (Across cultures, they are.) Pre-reg'd tests in the US suggest the answer is, in part: PHYSICAL STRENGTH (women = less 💪) The sex difference in 💪 partially mediates the sex dif in Neurot* *Really HEXACO Emotionality, esp. FEARFULNESS

The Proximate & Ultimate Reasons For Human Behaviour.

Tears paper with Asmir Gracanin & @lieberman_deb, now out @EvolHumBehav. We explore game-theoretic logic of tearing, psychology behind tear production & response, & evidence for signaling hypothesis. 50-day link 👉 sciencedirect.com/science/articl… Unpaywalled 👉 drive.google.com/file/d/1Rg7_OI…

🚨 Laws about bodily damage originate from shared intuitions about the value of body parts science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… New research by the great @YunsuhW, with @JaimieKrems & me, in @ScienceAdvances 🧵

Laypeople are surprisingly good at estimating the heritability levels of traits – although they tend to underestimate the heritability of obesity, and overestimate the heritability of breast cancer and sexual orientation. [Link below.]

Two of the most important insights from an evolutionary psychology perspective: 1) universal human cognitive mechanisms help generate behavioral variation in response to particular environmental contexts (what EPers call ‘evoked culture’, somewhat similar to what behavioral ecologists call ‘behavioral reaction norms’), 2) universal human cognitive mechanisms help generate eclectic behavioral similarities even in very different environmental contexts (what EP and cultural evolutionists term ‘cultural attractors’). Both of these insights were also presaged by anthropologists working from ethnographic evidence, and the latter was a point Darwin himself emphasized in Descent of Man. The key points are that the same universal human psychology can help explain both the massive differences and surprising similarities we see across societies throughout history

Can 🤣🤣BEING FUNNY🤣🤣 help you on the MATING market? Yes--if you're a man Women preferred men who had humorous (vs. not) statements in their profiles Men didn't care People also rated humorous (vs. non) targets as less intelligent, less trustworthy, + more socially adept

Happy to see my commentary with @DavePietrasz published today (on page 41).

"To the extent that people around the world think about others in terms of their ecology, there may be a range of other social categories, beyond race, that also have the potential to be 'replaced' by ecology." hbes.com/can-race-in-ou…

Once a CHEATER, ALWAYS a CHEATER? ❌No! People sometimes🤝TRUST🤝BETRAYERS! 1. Yes, ppl trust those who don't betray > betrayers 2. BUT ALSO trust those who betray in ONE'S OWN FAVOR (eg cheat with me) > those whose betrayals cost me (eg cheat on me) Holds in 💘/friend/work

New issue of Evolution & Human Behavior! Check out the articles on war, contraception, cultural transmission, mating, race categorization, friendship (human & non-human), faces, weaponry, genetics, honour cultures, and more: sciencedirect.com/journal/evolut…

A meta-analysis of 100s studies finds that people strongly agree about how beautiful others are (r=.90), including across ethnicities (r=.88) and across cultures (r=.94)

Can AI uncover the psychology of ancient peoples? Michael Varnum spoke with @sciam about how training models on archaic texts may provide insights on past cultures: scientificamerican.com/podcast/episod…