Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 1h

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · May 10

Dunbar's hugely influential social bonding hypothesis for the evolution of human language, music, & dance is based on the putative increase in primate grooming time with group size.

These are the supporting data, including a confound with substrate pointed out by others 🧪 #BioAnth 1/3

Three scatterplots of grooming time vs. group size in 73 primate species. Each displays considerable variation in grooming time that is mostly unrelated to group size but clearly related to substrate: terrestrial species (high grooming time) vs. arboreal species (low grooming time)

1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 1d

Part of the class assignment is to scour the literature for estimates of those numbers.

A second part of the class will be to run the simulations over a grid of parameters to assess the impact of variation in those numbers on study design.

1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 1d

ggdag / dagitty sim capabilities are more limited. But I requested a simDAG to dagitty method and voila: github.com/RobinDenz1/s...

github.com

1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 1d

I'm starting to explore {simDAG}, a nifty #rstats package that has a nice API for specifying DAGs and then simulating data from them: robindenz1.github.io/simDAG/

Simulate Data from a DAG and Associated Node Information

Simulate complex data from a given directed acyclic graph and information about each individual node. Root nodes are simply sampled from the specified distribution. Child Nodes are simulated according...

robindenz1.github.io

3 18 75

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 5d

I and many others have responded to substantive critiques of EP as a discipline, e.g, this chapter. Is this "circling the wagons"? Or just normal and useful academic debate? anthro.vancouver.wsu.edu/media/docume...

Invariant world, invariant mind. Evolutionary psychology and its critics
Edward H. Hagen

3

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 5d

There is a difference between defending a particular work, good or bad, and defending a discipline. The disciplines you mention (e.g., personality, cognitive) are rarely (?) attacked as such, unlike EP or BG.

1 1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 6d

Also, like Dan, I don’t recall hearing about this hypothesis before now, so I’m currently agnostic.

1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 6d

I agree you brought up important points. I’m just clarifying that the hypothesis is about a sex difference. Also, I’m mostly responding to some QTs of your post, not the post itself.

1 1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 6d

One final point. This article shows that (ignoring infanticide) many more men than women die violently in several small-scale S. American populations, including two mentioned by Will (and the hypothesis in question is about a sex *difference* in protectiveness):
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Body counts in lowland South American violence

Violence was likely often a strong selective pressure in many traditional lowland South American societies. A compilation of 11 anthropological studie…

www.sciencedirect.com

1 2

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 6d

...open science folks (including you?) were defensive about this (imo, unwarranted) attack on open science: www.science.org/content/arti...

Science’s reform movement should have seen Trump’s call for ‘gold standard science’ coming, critics say

Efforts to improve the rigor of research may have unwittingly handed the administration a way to attack science

www.science.org

2 1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 6d

I agree that EP's meta theory makes it easier to falsify EP hypotheses. I also agree that there is a tendency to circle the wagons, probably due to a universal evolved ingroup/outgroup psychology 🙂. For example...

1 2

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 7d

Yep, and many women *endorse* husbands beating their wives. Here are results from data I'm working on right now from 2.3 million women in low and middle income countries (TRUE: agree with at least 1 reason; FALSE: do not agree with any of these reasons):

1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 7d

But my strong impression is that the distribution of study quality within EP is about the same as the distribution within psychology in general (i.e., quite mixed). That's why I appreciate the work that you and Julia do to help all social scientists up their game.

1 3

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 7d

I haven't read the Costello et al. study. What I push back against is "evolutionary psychologists" believe x, y, or z, when it's actually "Costello et al." argue x, y, or z. By all means critique specific authors.

1 4

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 7d

Since women are ~50% of every society (and often more, due to higher adult male mortality), you're claiming that there's little evidence that women are sensitive to harm towards women (i.e., towards themselves). How plausible is that?

3 2

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 7d

I would bet that in all the cultures that Buckner mentions, men are also very violent towards other men. Hence, is there a sex *difference* in the targets of violence? which is the claim in question:

I bring all this up because, in a recent preprint titled ‘Why Incels Capture Attention’1, Costello & Acerbi reference what they refer to as the ‘harm hypothesis’ and the ‘greater protectiveness of females theory’, which, they write,

suggest[s] that humans evolved heightened sensitivity to harm directed at women, given their higher reproductive value and centrality to offspring survival (Stewart-Williams et al., 2024). This protective bias is robust across domains (see Graso & Reynolds, 2024 for a review). For example, people are less willing to harm women than men (e.g., FeldmanHall et al., 2016), are more punitive toward people who victimize women than men (e.g., Curry et al., 2004), and are less willing to accept harm befalling women compared to men (e.g., Graso et al., 2023)

2 1 2

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 7d

Many of Daly and Wilson's papers are available here: www.martindaly.ca/publications...

Martin Daly

Biography of and Publications for Martin Daly.

www.martindaly.ca

1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 7d

Two of the founders of evolutionary psychology, who also basically established Evolution and Human Behavior, the flagship journal in the field, devoted much of their careers to studying men's use of violence to control women.

From the TOC of their classic book (which has >5k citations):

Homicide, by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson.

2 6

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 8d

To carbonate, fill a standard 2L soft drink bottle with water, chill it in the fridge, and then attach the cap, crack the CO2 valve, and shake for about 1 minute.

Is it worth it? I'm not sure yet, tbh.

3

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 8d

3. Carbonator cap and tubing. I bought this for $20: www.amazon.com/dp/B09FQ36FVJ

Amazon.com: Hgkeke 5.5ft 5/16 Co2 Gas Line Tubing for Kegerator Assembly with stainless steel carbonator cap carbonation cap for soda bottle, Ball Gas Lock Draft beer Red Hose kit for Homebrew: Home &...

Shop Hgkeke at the Amazon Small Appliance Parts & Accessories store. Free Shipping on eligible items. Everyday low prices, save up to 50%.

www.amazon.com

1 1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 8d

2. A CO2 regulator. I bought this one for $40: www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8QW7TD7

Amazon.com: HGKEKE CO2 Keg Regulator Draft Beer CO2 Regulator CGA-320 Regulator Dual Stage CO2 Pressure Regulator 5/16’’ Barb Dual Gauge Dual Knob Quadruple Hose Clamp Kegerator Regulator for CO2 Tank...

Shop Hgkeke at the Amazon Home Brewing & Wine Making store. Free Shipping on eligible items. Everyday low prices, save up to 50%.

www.amazon.com

1

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 8d

DIY soda maker. You need to buy 3 things:

1. A 5 lb CO2 tank. Mine cost $100 from a local beer-brewing supply store, which will swap empties for filled units for $20.

5 lb -> 100-150 liters -> $0.13-$0.20/liter vs. $1/liter for store-bought vs. $0.50/liter for sodastream.

A 5 lb CO2 tank, regulator, and PET soda bottle hose and adapter.

1 1 5

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 10d

Great thread on the discovery that a rare mutation in FOXP2 disrupts language, with an appearance by Steve Pinker. Subsequent research showed that FOXP2, a transcription factor, is highly conserved, yet acquired 2 amino acid substitutions in the human lineage. 🧪 #BioAnth

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 10d

Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪

Image shows the first two printed pages of the paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” by Cecilia Lai and colleagues, published in Nature in 2001 (volume 413, pages 519-523). The abstract reads as follows:
Individuals affected with developmental disorders of speech and language have substantial difficulty acquiring expressive and/or receptive language in the absence of any profound sensory or neurological impairment and despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although studies of twins consistently indicate that a significant genetic component is involved, most families segregating speech and language deficits show complex patterns of inheritance, and a gene that predisposes individuals to such disorders has not been identified. We have studied a unique three-generation pedigree, KE, in which a severe speech and language disorder is transmitted as an autosomal-dominant monogenic trait. Our previous work mapped the locus responsible, SPCH1, to a 5.6-cM interval of region 7q31 on chromosome 7. We also identified an unrelated individual, CS, in whom speech and language impairment is associated with a chromosomal translocation involving the SPCH1 interval. Here we show that the gene FOXP2, which encodes a putative transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead DNA-binding domain, is directly disrupted by the translocation breakpoint in CS. In addition, we identify a point mutation in affected members of the KE family that alters an invariant amino-acid residue in the forkhead domain. Our findings suggest that FOXP2 is involved in the developmental process that culminates in speech and language.

9

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 14d

@mgurven.bsky.social

Ed Hagen @edhagen.net · 15d

If I only want one or two cols from df2, I typically use this version of the 2nd approach:

df1 |> left_join(df2[c("id", "timestamp")])

1 1