Alexander Schakowski
@alexschakowski.bsky.social
Predoctoral Fellow at MPI for Human Development, Berlin. Interested in human foraging, social decision-making, and collective intelligence.
Pinned
youtu.be
What is driving social foraging dynamics in the wild? In a new pre-print, we investigate decision-making mechanisms in large groups of Finnish ice-fishers competing for resources: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Big thanks to drone pilot Félicie Dhellemmes.
1/n
youtu.be/I_RH2diXcAk
Big thanks to drone pilot Félicie Dhellemmes.
1/n
youtu.be/I_RH2diXcAk
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
📣 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...
"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...
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation
doi.org
November 18, 2025 at 8:05 AM
📣 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...
"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...
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Female fertility and infant survivorship increase following lethal intergroup aggression and territorial expansion in wild chimpanzees | PNAS
Lethal coalitionary intergroup aggression is a conspicuous aspect of wild chimpanzee
behavior. Evidence indicates that such violence can lead to te...
www.pnas.org
November 18, 2025 at 4:20 AM
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Postdoc position in individual-level incentives, social
learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz
files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...
learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz
files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...
files.newsletter2go.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Postdoc position in individual-level incentives, social
learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz
files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...
learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz
files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
🧠Our new preprint is out on PsyArXiv!
We study how getting more feedback (seeing what you could have earned) and facing gains vs losses change the way people choose between risky and safe options.
🖇️Link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread🧶:
We study how getting more feedback (seeing what you could have earned) and facing gains vs losses change the way people choose between risky and safe options.
🖇️Link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread🧶:
November 16, 2025 at 12:09 PM
🧠Our new preprint is out on PsyArXiv!
We study how getting more feedback (seeing what you could have earned) and facing gains vs losses change the way people choose between risky and safe options.
🖇️Link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread🧶:
We study how getting more feedback (seeing what you could have earned) and facing gains vs losses change the way people choose between risky and safe options.
🖇️Link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
It's a thread🧶:
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
🚨 🐍 Our new paper on the consequences men face when countering patriarchal norms in rural Tanzania 🐍.🚨
We carried out focus groups and detailed interviews with a whopping 172 women and men about their perceptions of men who support women's empowerment... 📝 1/5
We carried out focus groups and detailed interviews with a whopping 172 women and men about their perceptions of men who support women's empowerment... 📝 1/5
“A snake with no teeth”: Urbanization shifts perceptions of men who support women’s empowerment in Northwestern Tanzania
Achieving gender equality requires the support of all genders, but efforts to engage men in women’s empowerment initiatives have been fraught with res…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM
🚨 🐍 Our new paper on the consequences men face when countering patriarchal norms in rural Tanzania 🐍.🚨
We carried out focus groups and detailed interviews with a whopping 172 women and men about their perceptions of men who support women's empowerment... 📝 1/5
We carried out focus groups and detailed interviews with a whopping 172 women and men about their perceptions of men who support women's empowerment... 📝 1/5
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
We released a pretty cool dataset/preprint today looking at video game play, cognition, time-use and a ton of self-reported psych measures at osf.io/preprints/ps... with @nballou.bsky.social @matti.vuorre.com @thomashakman.bsky.social @rpsychologist.com and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social RRs coming soon
November 14, 2025 at 4:35 PM
We released a pretty cool dataset/preprint today looking at video game play, cognition, time-use and a ton of self-reported psych measures at osf.io/preprints/ps... with @nballou.bsky.social @matti.vuorre.com @thomashakman.bsky.social @rpsychologist.com and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social RRs coming soon
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Congratulations to Dr @mariapykala.bsky.social for successfully defending her PhD thesis yesterday. Two big themes. 1) Social learning as a two-step process with psychological biases shaping both network formation and social learning given a network. 2) Cumulative cultural evolution in an AI world.
November 14, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Congratulations to Dr @mariapykala.bsky.social for successfully defending her PhD thesis yesterday. Two big themes. 1) Social learning as a two-step process with psychological biases shaping both network formation and social learning given a network. 2) Cumulative cultural evolution in an AI world.
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
November 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Excited to share our preprint on variability in patch leaving decisions! Check out the 🧵 below
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Excited to share our preprint on variability in patch leaving decisions! Check out the 🧵 below
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
New paper!
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 12, 2025 at 11:56 AM
New paper!
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
🚨 Inviting collaborators! 🚨
We’re launching PsychLing-101 — an open, community-driven initiative to gather psycholinguistic datasets for cross-dataset analyses and the development of psycholinguistic foundation models.
👉 To contribute or propose a dataset, go to:
🔗 github.com/Data-X01/Psy...
We’re launching PsychLing-101 — an open, community-driven initiative to gather psycholinguistic datasets for cross-dataset analyses and the development of psycholinguistic foundation models.
👉 To contribute or propose a dataset, go to:
🔗 github.com/Data-X01/Psy...
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
November 12, 2025 at 9:10 AM
🚨 Inviting collaborators! 🚨
We’re launching PsychLing-101 — an open, community-driven initiative to gather psycholinguistic datasets for cross-dataset analyses and the development of psycholinguistic foundation models.
👉 To contribute or propose a dataset, go to:
🔗 github.com/Data-X01/Psy...
We’re launching PsychLing-101 — an open, community-driven initiative to gather psycholinguistic datasets for cross-dataset analyses and the development of psycholinguistic foundation models.
👉 To contribute or propose a dataset, go to:
🔗 github.com/Data-X01/Psy...
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Dr. Ralf Kurvers, from the MPI of Human Development & TU, Berlin!
His work explores how individuals process and share information, how social interactions shape group decisions, and how collective intelligence emerges across species.
Learn more about his work 👉 ralfkurvers.com
His work explores how individuals process and share information, how social interactions shape group decisions, and how collective intelligence emerges across species.
Learn more about his work 👉 ralfkurvers.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Dr. Ralf Kurvers, from the MPI of Human Development & TU, Berlin!
His work explores how individuals process and share information, how social interactions shape group decisions, and how collective intelligence emerges across species.
Learn more about his work 👉 ralfkurvers.com
His work explores how individuals process and share information, how social interactions shape group decisions, and how collective intelligence emerges across species.
Learn more about his work 👉 ralfkurvers.com
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Part of a startup project funded by Max Planck Innovation's MAX!mize program, we're developing next-generation software for automated analysis of animal social behavior. We have this opening:
Software Engineer (m/f/d) (80 - 100 %) Behavioral Analysis Platform Development
Details : lnkd.in/ewXgnBmV
Software Engineer (m/f/d) (80 - 100 %) Behavioral Analysis Platform Development
Details : lnkd.in/ewXgnBmV
November 7, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Part of a startup project funded by Max Planck Innovation's MAX!mize program, we're developing next-generation software for automated analysis of animal social behavior. We have this opening:
Software Engineer (m/f/d) (80 - 100 %) Behavioral Analysis Platform Development
Details : lnkd.in/ewXgnBmV
Software Engineer (m/f/d) (80 - 100 %) Behavioral Analysis Platform Development
Details : lnkd.in/ewXgnBmV
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
❗❗ Just a quick note: We recently discovered an issue with our email system that prevented some incoming messages from reaching us. If you’ve contacted us recently, please resend your message – we’re sorry for the inconvenience!
November 6, 2025 at 2:50 PM
❗❗ Just a quick note: We recently discovered an issue with our email system that prevented some incoming messages from reaching us. If you’ve contacted us recently, please resend your message – we’re sorry for the inconvenience!
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Just 1 week to apply! 4 year @erc.europa.eu funded PhD position working in an interdisciplinary team to study #culturalEvolution as a process of reuse, recombination, and creative re-engineering of past solutions. Details 👉 hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur... 🙏Please share!
November 5, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Just 1 week to apply! 4 year @erc.europa.eu funded PhD position working in an interdisciplinary team to study #culturalEvolution as a process of reuse, recombination, and creative re-engineering of past solutions. Details 👉 hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur... 🙏Please share!
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
This week we talk to @babeheim.bsky.social about culture, change, modeling, running red lights, and the game of go.
youtu.be/nqTkSK-qtJM
www.podbean.com/eas/pb-hrn9v...
youtu.be/nqTkSK-qtJM
www.podbean.com/eas/pb-hrn9v...
Cultural Dynamics with Bret Breheim
YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast)
youtu.be
November 4, 2025 at 2:59 PM
This week we talk to @babeheim.bsky.social about culture, change, modeling, running red lights, and the game of go.
youtu.be/nqTkSK-qtJM
www.podbean.com/eas/pb-hrn9v...
youtu.be/nqTkSK-qtJM
www.podbean.com/eas/pb-hrn9v...
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Next up @alexschakowski.bsky.social talking about social foraging.
November 4, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Next up @alexschakowski.bsky.social talking about social foraging.
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
New paper! We found that intensifying market integration in Rep. Congo does not uniformly shape BaYaka and Bantu adolescent behaviour and consumption, and that adolescents may be contributing to shifts in norms regarding the sharing of money.
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
BaYaka forager and Bantu fisher‐farmer adolescent engagement with intensifying market integration in the Republic of the Congo
A substantial body of anthropological research has investigated how subsistence communities engage with market-based economies. In this study, we contribute to this body of work by examining adolesce...
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:21 AM
New paper! We found that intensifying market integration in Rep. Congo does not uniformly shape BaYaka and Bantu adolescent behaviour and consumption, and that adolescents may be contributing to shifts in norms regarding the sharing of money.
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs
The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined...
www.science.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
We have a new preprint: osf.io/preprints/so...
What have we learned about social media - the constantly moving target of empirical research - over the past decade?
What have we learned about social media - the constantly moving target of empirical research - over the past decade?
October 30, 2025 at 10:53 AM
We have a new preprint: osf.io/preprints/so...
What have we learned about social media - the constantly moving target of empirical research - over the past decade?
What have we learned about social media - the constantly moving target of empirical research - over the past decade?
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
TWO papers just out in @royalsocietypublishing.org #biologyletters :
1) Red kites switched from scavenging along roads to foraging away from roads during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
2) Fishers synchronise heart rates when cooperating with dolphins, but only when in close proximity.
1/
1) Red kites switched from scavenging along roads to foraging away from roads during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
2) Fishers synchronise heart rates when cooperating with dolphins, but only when in close proximity.
1/
October 29, 2025 at 4:08 AM
TWO papers just out in @royalsocietypublishing.org #biologyletters :
1) Red kites switched from scavenging along roads to foraging away from roads during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
2) Fishers synchronise heart rates when cooperating with dolphins, but only when in close proximity.
1/
1) Red kites switched from scavenging along roads to foraging away from roads during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
2) Fishers synchronise heart rates when cooperating with dolphins, but only when in close proximity.
1/
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
And paper 2 is now online: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....
October 29, 2025 at 9:48 AM
And paper 2 is now online: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
🚨 New preprint 🚨
Are reinforcement learning models complete accounts of decisions from experience if they ignore explicit memory?
In this new preprint, we show that people indeed form robust explicit memory representations that flexibly guide later decisions.
🔗 Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Are reinforcement learning models complete accounts of decisions from experience if they ignore explicit memory?
In this new preprint, we show that people indeed form robust explicit memory representations that flexibly guide later decisions.
🔗 Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
October 29, 2025 at 8:24 AM
🚨 New preprint 🚨
Are reinforcement learning models complete accounts of decisions from experience if they ignore explicit memory?
In this new preprint, we show that people indeed form robust explicit memory representations that flexibly guide later decisions.
🔗 Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Are reinforcement learning models complete accounts of decisions from experience if they ignore explicit memory?
In this new preprint, we show that people indeed form robust explicit memory representations that flexibly guide later decisions.
🔗 Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Alexander Schakowski
Fully-funded 4-year #PhD in Cultural Evolution! Join my @erc.europa.eu project exploring how compression & compositionality drive cultural innovation: hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
Apply by Nov 12!
Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏
Apply by Nov 12!
Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏
ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution
ERC funded PhD position on Cultural Evolution
posted on October 16, 2025
We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual for a ful...
hmc-lab.com
October 20, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Fully-funded 4-year #PhD in Cultural Evolution! Join my @erc.europa.eu project exploring how compression & compositionality drive cultural innovation: hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
Apply by Nov 12!
Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏
Apply by Nov 12!
Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏