John H. Shaver

Causal Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) are like chainsaws: used well, they slice through heavy tasks; used poorly, and you might lose a limb. Here's the first of four tutorials in @Journal_EHS for human scientists new to causal inference: cambridge.org/core/journals/… Tips: - Understand that causal inference involves a larger workflow that starts by stating a clear causal question & target population. - Understand that larger workflow. E.g. consider you must also address positivity & causal consistency assumptions. - Your DAG is a tool to clarify unmeasured confounding, not a paintbrush for describing all reality. - Group common causes, let the spatial arrangement reflect chronological order. - Like time's arrow, ensure your DAG doesn't loop back. - When in doubt, present multiple DAGs. - There's lots of other material I reference in the article. I got my start from @_MiguelHernan's course, which is *free* here: edx.org/learn/data-ana… In later posts, I'll describe my other tutorials and why I'm so passionate about causal inference. The full special issue with lots of great work is here. Thanks to @EffersonCharles @tavitonst for driving it: cambridge.org/core/journals/… #CausalInference #DAGs

"Sharpening causal reasoning in applied ethnographic research," a schematic of our approach, and a preprint version researchgate.net/publication/38…

New paper! The "paradox" of happiness despite declining health & social losses is no paradox at all! (in rural groups) U-shaped happiness curve applies to high-income countries w/ social safety nets, formal retirement and non-subsistence economy. (1/x) tinyurl.com/37wzkc8n

Had a lot of fun talking with @Chris_Ly and Anahí

When are individuals more likely to care for others' offspring - under scarcity or abundance? Find out in Elic Weitzel & colleagues new HBES blog post about alloparenting: hbes.com/time-or-resour… Or read the original EHB article here: doi.org/10.1016/j.evol…

📢 Job alert! Come join @LSEMethodology! We're a friendly interdisciplinary dept, looking for a new colleague with expertise in qualitative research methods. (No need to be a 'methodologist' - just someone who cares about doing careful, considered work). Feel free to reach out!

Post about what our recent work suggests for theories that predict religion helps mothers to receive broad support with children, vs. those that envision religion as fe/male mating strategies. evolutionarydemographyofreligion.org/religion-in-th…

New project study (the first of our primary data articles!!) examines the role of maternal religion on allopatenal support among Gambia mothers. In AJHB. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aj…

Check out our (@EvoDemReligion) new paper simulating fitness outcomes for alloparenting! Allocare with different cost structures is adaptive under different ecological conditions. Free to read/download here for 50 days: authors.elsevier.com/a/1jbEK3tz496Y…

Come join us in Anthropology at Baylor!

Check out a quick summary of our paper on religiosity and support to mothers in the US and the UK. The paper is from the @EvoDemReligion team, and is also out now in @EvolHumBehav

Write up about our new article led by @LSpakeAnthro Article here: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

In a new paper led by Losia Lagisz, we find that 222 “Best Paper” awards across 27 subject areas lack transparency, inclusivity, and support for Open Science. Of particular concern, concepts that align with Open Science were almost absent from assessment criteria ☹️

Our (with Oskar Burger and Ron Lee) edited volume Human Evolutionary Demography is now published by @OpenBookPublish 🎉 32 chapters completely free to read, including an impressive line-up of researchers working in this area 😊

Does polygyny inevitably lock many man out of the marriage market? It's a widespread belief that "if one man marries 2 wives, another must go without a wife". But it's wrong. Our preprint shows the importance of demography to understanding marriage markets & their consequences👇

As they launch a new round of data collection, today @johnhshaver and @LSpakeAnthro presented findings from the first round of data collection to participants from four of the villages we work with.

New paper from our @EvoDemReligion project, led by @anushehassan Nuclearization of maternal support networks in the UK and the US during the COVID-19 pandemic: Impact on women's financial and emotional wellbeing sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Three year lecturer/senior lecturer position at Otago. Expertise in science of religion, evolutionary approaches, CSR, etc. Equivalent to Assistant/Associate in North America. Great colleagues. Apply here: otago.taleo.net/careersection/…

New paper out from the @EvoDemReligion team in @RSocPublishing ! This one summarizes lessons from building and running our cross-cultural mixed-methods project. We hope it will be helpful to others! 🔗 find the OA paper here: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs… 👇 highlight thread below

The @EvoDemReligion project was well-represented at last week’s @EHBEA1 conference. @anushehassan & @LSpakeAnthro presented posters on qualitative work from the project, & Laure also gave a talk on the associations between allomothering & child outcomes in our cross-cultural data