Bret Beheim
@babeheim.bsky.social
cultural evolution, behavioral ecology, math models, data provenance, MOSAIC group leader @ Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology + faculty at the Leipzig School of Human Origins https://babeheim.com/
Reposted by Bret Beheim
Super proud of this paper with @apvelilla.bsky.social and @babeheim.bsky.social, now out in Psych Review.
Non-paywalled version (preprint) here: osf.io/preprints/so...
Non-paywalled version (preprint) here: osf.io/preprints/so...
How likely are you to invest in a new business? Ask your partner to marry you? Move to a new country?
A new model by SFI External Professor Paul Smaldino and colleagues explains how wealth, experience, and environment shape our risk tolerance — and how those effects persist across generations.
A new model by SFI External Professor Paul Smaldino and colleagues explains how wealth, experience, and environment shape our risk tolerance — and how those effects persist across generations.
Personal risk tolerance has sweeping implications for how societies evolve
How much risk is any individual willing to take on? That depends, in part, on their individual resources and environment, which shape the learning strategies that influence their personal proclivity t...
www.santafe.edu
December 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Super proud of this paper with @apvelilla.bsky.social and @babeheim.bsky.social, now out in Psych Review.
Non-paywalled version (preprint) here: osf.io/preprints/so...
Non-paywalled version (preprint) here: osf.io/preprints/so...
welcome to the future, it sucks ass
November 6, 2025 at 9:28 AM
welcome to the future, it sucks ass
Reposted by Bret Beheim
Very happy to see this collaboration with @babeheim.bsky.social published in Animal Cognition: 'Vocal mimicry in corvids'. Since posting the first preprint, we have identified evidence for vocal mimicry in 8 more species, thanks to the community highlighting additional sources #communityscience
October 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Very happy to see this collaboration with @babeheim.bsky.social published in Animal Cognition: 'Vocal mimicry in corvids'. Since posting the first preprint, we have identified evidence for vocal mimicry in 8 more species, thanks to the community highlighting additional sources #communityscience
Reposted by Bret Beheim
I will never not repost this
(Sound on for maximum effect)
(Sound on for maximum effect)
October 5, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I will never not repost this
(Sound on for maximum effect)
(Sound on for maximum effect)
Reposted by Bret Beheim
"Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that."
Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.
Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.
Jimmy Kimmel Returns: ABC Ends Suspension Starting Tuesday
Jimmy Kimmel will return to late night on Tuesday
variety.com
September 22, 2025 at 8:22 PM
"Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that."
Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.
Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.
Reposted by Bret Beheim
Look at academia giving me a little hope
“52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy”
V-Dem data
V-Dem data
When autocratization is reversed: episodes of U-Turns since 1900
The world is in a “wave of autocratization.” Yet, recent events in Brazil, the Maldives, and Zambia demonstrate that autocratization can be halted and reversed. This article introduces “U-Turn” as ...
www.tandfonline.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Look at academia giving me a little hope
Reposted by Bret Beheim
When the labels for a bunch of abstracted trees (opening moves in Go!!) are already bridging fantasy and scifi genres:
Early Modern Era
Imperial Era
International Era
Internet Era
Superhuman AI Era
Early Modern Era
Imperial Era
International Era
Internet Era
Superhuman AI Era
September 16, 2025 at 3:42 PM
When the labels for a bunch of abstracted trees (opening moves in Go!!) are already bridging fantasy and scifi genres:
Early Modern Era
Imperial Era
International Era
Internet Era
Superhuman AI Era
Early Modern Era
Imperial Era
International Era
Internet Era
Superhuman AI Era
Reposted by Bret Beheim
Cool new paper (and a thread about it) by @babeheim.bsky.social on the cultural evolution of Go games! Check out these colourful decision trees 🔥 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....
September 16, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Cool new paper (and a thread about it) by @babeheim.bsky.social on the cultural evolution of Go games! Check out these colourful decision trees 🔥 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....
How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
September 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!
Reposted by Bret Beheim
🚨 Excited to share a new paper 📃, years in the making, with Zach Wood.
We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).
Explainer and OA paper below:
We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).
Explainer and OA paper below:
September 15, 2025 at 4:16 PM
🚨 Excited to share a new paper 📃, years in the making, with Zach Wood.
We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).
Explainer and OA paper below:
We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).
Explainer and OA paper below:
last update: 48 years ago lol
September 4, 2025 at 12:37 PM
last update: 48 years ago lol
Reposted by Bret Beheim
What do Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat have to teach us about #cultural #evolution? As a social-technological phenomenon, #arcade game genres evolved like cultural species—some diversified, while others became "living fossils." 🕹️🧪 👉 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....
August 20, 2025 at 1:11 PM
What do Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat have to teach us about #cultural #evolution? As a social-technological phenomenon, #arcade game genres evolved like cultural species—some diversified, while others became "living fossils." 🕹️🧪 👉 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....
Reposted by Bret Beheim
I have always loved linguistics, coming from Baltimore. This is awesome. I follow a bunch of linguistics and language people on TikTok, but my children have been watching it with me off and on and well, things have gotten a bit weird for me there.
August 25, 2025 at 12:06 AM
I have always loved linguistics, coming from Baltimore. This is awesome. I follow a bunch of linguistics and language people on TikTok, but my children have been watching it with me off and on and well, things have gotten a bit weird for me there.
Reposted by Bret Beheim
I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society
Social effects on fertility promote population growth and the evolution of flexible cooperation in a small-scale human society.
www.science.org
July 30, 2025 at 7:41 PM
I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
I'm playing around with the decision tree for professional openings in the game of Go, and I've almost re-created the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social logo
July 14, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I'm playing around with the decision tree for professional openings in the game of Go, and I've almost re-created the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social logo
Reposted by Bret Beheim
Ian Dunt's piece on the politics of Superman is brilliant, but I don't think anything can quite live up to the insight from this 1940 UK newspaper article. iandunt.substack.com/p/immigrant-...
July 12, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Ian Dunt's piece on the politics of Superman is brilliant, but I don't think anything can quite live up to the insight from this 1940 UK newspaper article. iandunt.substack.com/p/immigrant-...
Reposted by Bret Beheim
How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...
Which Kind of Science Reform
What hope is there for science reform, if we can't agree on what to reform? Right now, principles are more important than practices.
elevanth.org
July 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...
Reposted by Bret Beheim
I am really happy to share this new paper with Konstantinos Alexiou on Steady-State and Dynamical Behavior of a PDE Model of Multilevel Selection with Pairwise Group-Level Competition, which is now published in #BulletinMathBio.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪
Steady-State and Dynamical Behavior of a PDE Model of Multilevel Selection with Pairwise Group-Level Competition - Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
Evolutionary competition often occurs simultaneously at multiple levels of organization, in which traits or behaviors that are costly for an individual can provide collective benefits to groups to whi...
link.springer.com
July 7, 2025 at 11:48 PM
I am really happy to share this new paper with Konstantinos Alexiou on Steady-State and Dynamical Behavior of a PDE Model of Multilevel Selection with Pairwise Group-Level Competition, which is now published in #BulletinMathBio.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪
Glad to see the old Broad Street Pump myth finally getting some public criticism. Terrible causal inference - I think we should stop teaching it altogether, or maybe teach it as an anti-model of good reasoning.
June 9, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Glad to see the old Broad Street Pump myth finally getting some public criticism. Terrible causal inference - I think we should stop teaching it altogether, or maybe teach it as an anti-model of good reasoning.
Reposted by Bret Beheim
Big cities are vibrant hubs of culture, but why exactly is that? Now out in @natcomms.nature.com, we analysed music listening patterns of over 2.5 million people and demographics to examine mechanisms driving cultural diversity. With @researchdeezer.bsky.social @norijacoby.bsky.social
Highlights ⬇
Highlights ⬇
June 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Big cities are vibrant hubs of culture, but why exactly is that? Now out in @natcomms.nature.com, we analysed music listening patterns of over 2.5 million people and demographics to examine mechanisms driving cultural diversity. With @researchdeezer.bsky.social @norijacoby.bsky.social
Highlights ⬇
Highlights ⬇
Reposted by Bret Beheim
The reason Putin threw the richest man in Russia in prison and destroyed his fortune and redistributed his assets to his own cronies is so that the second richest man wouldn't have to choose.
bsky.app/profile/bapt...
bsky.app/profile/bapt...
June 5, 2025 at 9:40 PM
The reason Putin threw the richest man in Russia in prison and destroyed his fortune and redistributed his assets to his own cronies is so that the second richest man wouldn't have to choose.
bsky.app/profile/bapt...
bsky.app/profile/bapt...