Hans Fredrik Sunde
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hfsunde.bsky.social
Hans Fredrik Sunde
@hfsunde.bsky.social
570 followers 190 following 120 posts
Researcher at the Centre for Fertility and Health (NIPH) in Oslo. Interested in assortative mating, behavioral genetics, and bias in research.
www.hansfredriksunde.com
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hfsunde.bsky.social
Hans Fredrik Sunde @hfsunde.bsky.social · Jun 11
Last week, our new paper on indirect assortative mating was published.🍾 Let’s take a closer look at what this means, why it matters, and what we found (🧵/32):

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
torvik.bsky.social
Who wants to join us in Oslo to study how health influences educational underperformance? We are hiring PhDs postdocs candidates for our funded project. We will follow children from birth to emerging adulthood, using behavioural genetic methods and large datasets 945000.webcruiter.no/Main/Recruit...
Two positions as either PhD or postdoctoral fellow on health determinants of education
Do you want to research how health influences school performance and leads to intergenerational inequality? We have two vacant 3-year positions as a PhD fellow or postdoctoral research fellow in the p...
945000.webcruiter.no
December 5, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
michelnivard.bsky.social
Its notable that some (in this case @mendelrandom.bsky.social (George Davey-Smith)) were on to him while he was alive, video a young GDS confronting Eysenk in a Q&A in 1994 for his data being inconsistent: youtu.be/K9pyS7EGCV8?...
December 4, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
torkildl.bsky.social
Det er det samme i Norge. Finansieringsmodellen belønner studentens progresjon (studiepoeng, grader) og straffer de som stryker studenter. Studentenes rettsikkerhet er svært sterk, og innbyr til klaging m.v. Universitetene bør befris fra dette, og gjøres mer uavhengige!
groda.eu Grodaeu @groda.eu · 7d
Since we are doing university education takes: By far the most time consuming task is failing students. You are also published for it by getting less money. This creates an incentive system that is not ideal.
November 30, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
dsquintana.bsky.social
If a lecturer wheels in an overhead projector with transparent sheets and markers, you’re about to witness either the best or worst lecture of your life. Nothing in between.
tflangkaas.bsky.social Tomas Formo Langkaas @tflangkaas.bsky.social · 8d
At this point I would prefer to see handwritten presentations with drawings.
November 28, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
mlandersen.com
New preprint📈📉

What happens to health and work when people become grandparents? Using Norwegian register data on all individuals born 1950-1960, we use event-study models comparing grandparents to not-yet grandparents to track changes in health and labour supply.

🔗 www.ssrn.com/abstract=571...
Figure showing event-study plots centred around the birth of one's first grandchild. The left plot shows health changes, the right shows labour market changes (separated by grandparent gender). The image shows the following abstract: The Cost of Caring: Gendered Health and Labour Market Effects of Grandparenthood While the effects of the transition to parenthood are well-researched, less is known about how the transition to grandparenthood affects health and labour market outcomes. Using comprehensive Norwegian register data covering the entire population born between 1950 and 1960, we examine the effects of first-born grandchildren born during 2007–2018. Employing event-study models with person-year records, we compare grandparents to not-yet grandparents. Our findings reveal a sharp increase in the likelihood of respiratory infections during the first two years of grandparenthood, with infections increasing by 56% for women and 31% for men. Additionally, grandparenthood modestly reduces the likelihood of doctor’s visits related to mental disorders (4.5%) and cardiovascular health (3.3%). Grandmothers also see a decline in musculoskeletal-related visits (3.8%). These health-related changes coincide with notable gendered effects on labour market participation. Ten years after the birth of their first grandchild, employed women are 12% less likely to hold full-time positions compared to a 2% reduction for men. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the transition to grandparenthood significantly reshapes health and economic outcomes for both women and men. The larger effects observed for women likely reflect their greater involvement in informal childcare provision. Our results underscore the intersection of health, family dynamics, and gendered labour market behaviours in late adulthood.
November 20, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
oskarpettersson.bsky.social
Cross-country analyses of EA PGI associations are a crucial step towards an increased understanding of how genetic influences occur in conjunction with societal structures - but also of the inevitable challenges that come with doing so. See this new study out in Molecular Psychiatry! ⬇️
Within- and between-family genetic effects on educational achievement vary across countries and ages - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Within- and between-family genetic effects on educational achievement vary across countries and ages
www.nature.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:24 AM
hfsunde.bsky.social
Getting grandchildren increases risk of respiratory infections, but also *reduces* risk of cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and psychiatric conditions. It also causes a (probably voluntary) reduction in employment and income, an effect that is larger for women (i.e., a gendered "grandchild penalty")
mlandersen.com Maria L. Andersen @mlandersen.com · 16d
New preprint📈📉

What happens to health and work when people become grandparents? Using Norwegian register data on all individuals born 1950-1960, we use event-study models comparing grandparents to not-yet grandparents to track changes in health and labour supply.

🔗 www.ssrn.com/abstract=571...
Figure showing event-study plots centred around the birth of one's first grandchild. The left plot shows health changes, the right shows labour market changes (separated by grandparent gender). The image shows the following abstract: The Cost of Caring: Gendered Health and Labour Market Effects of Grandparenthood While the effects of the transition to parenthood are well-researched, less is known about how the transition to grandparenthood affects health and labour market outcomes. Using comprehensive Norwegian register data covering the entire population born between 1950 and 1960, we examine the effects of first-born grandchildren born during 2007–2018. Employing event-study models with person-year records, we compare grandparents to not-yet grandparents. Our findings reveal a sharp increase in the likelihood of respiratory infections during the first two years of grandparenthood, with infections increasing by 56% for women and 31% for men. Additionally, grandparenthood modestly reduces the likelihood of doctor’s visits related to mental disorders (4.5%) and cardiovascular health (3.3%). Grandmothers also see a decline in musculoskeletal-related visits (3.8%). These health-related changes coincide with notable gendered effects on labour market participation. Ten years after the birth of their first grandchild, employed women are 12% less likely to hold full-time positions compared to a 2% reduction for men. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the transition to grandparenthood significantly reshapes health and economic outcomes for both women and men. The larger effects observed for women likely reflect their greater involvement in informal childcare provision. Our results underscore the intersection of health, family dynamics, and gendered labour market behaviours in late adulthood.
November 20, 2025 at 4:32 PM
hfsunde.bsky.social
👀
loic-yengo.bsky.social loic-yengo.bsky.social @loic-yengo.bsky.social · 24d
First time on Bsky and first big announcement!

I am excited to announce that our new study explaining the missing heritability of many phenotypes using WGS data from ~347,000 UK Biobank participants has just been published in @Nature.

Our manuscript is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
Estimation and mapping of the missing heritability of human phenotypes - Nature
WGS data were used from 347,630 individuals with European ancestry in the UK Biobank to obtain high-precision estimates of coding and non-coding rare variant heritability for 34 co...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
briannosek.bsky.social
Ouch
November 6, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
rosacheesman.bsky.social
1/ 🚨New paper in Nature Genetics

Genetic factors are associated with the educational fields people study, from arts to engineering.

Article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
FAQ: www.thehastingscenter.org/genomic-find...
Genetic associations with educational fields - Nature Genetics
Genome-wide analyses of 10 educational fields identify 17 associated loci. Analysis of genetic clustering across specializations identifies two key dimensions that show genetic overlap with personalit...
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:23 AM
hfsunde.bsky.social
Better schools can compensate for dispositions
rosacheesman.bsky.social Rosa Cheesman @rosacheesman.bsky.social · Oct 28
Interdisciplinary paper with @paulhufe.net Astrid Sandsør and Nicolai Borgen now out in PNAS!
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Causal evidence of gene-environment interaction for reading test scores based on:
🧬 Exogenous within-family genetic differences
🏫 Exogenous variation in school value added
The genetic lottery goes to school: Better schools compensate for the effects of students’ genetic differences
www.pnas.org
October 29, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
ludvigdb.bsky.social
Excited to share this work led by @cktamnes.bsky.social (and featuring many colleagues from PROMENTA at @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social) exploring the links between psychological wellbeing and illbeing across biological, developmental, societal and intervention perspectives
October 16, 2025 at 3:55 PM
hfsunde.bsky.social
Very cool!
October 14, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
dingdingpeng.the100.ci
New blog post!

Let's say you have two measures meant to capture the same confounder. They're highly correlated. Can you still proceed with your regression analysis?

(I admit, the title is a bit of a spoiler)

www.the100.ci/2025/10/13/i...
If you have two measures of the same confounder, you can just include both of them in your regression model
Sometimes, researchers worry about multicollinearity in situations where it’s actually a non-issue. Here’s one such scenario. Imagine a situation where you are interested in the effect of X on Y (X...
www.the100.ci
October 13, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
eivindy.bsky.social
Two birds of a gene - catch Matt Keller's webinar at @uio.no on October 15th. Please share
www.sv.uio.no/promenta/eng...
@ispg.bsky.social @behaviorgenetic.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social @essgn.bsky.social @ibg.colorado.edu
Using structural equation models to estimate direct and indirect genetic effects and assortative mating in trio data - PROMENTA
Guest lecture by Matt Keller
www.sv.uio.no
October 5, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
chelseaparlett.bsky.social
It’s not the method that makes you causal it’s the assumptions
October 4, 2025 at 3:52 AM
hfsunde.bsky.social
PsyPost did a piece on our recent study on assortative mating. Check out the full paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 1, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
ruben.the100.ci
Our fragmentation paper is now finally out! I put some of the dumb quips that didn't make the cut in the alt texts.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
A fragmented field. If we conceive of the constructs and concepts studied in behavioral science as a map, we would find that it is highly fragmented and directions are hard to come by. Scientists can hardly stand on each others' shoulders if they cannot manage to meet on common ground. Fragmentation has worsened, not decreased, as the field has grown. Partly, this happens because we have too many reverse Columbuses, who, in search of prestige, set out to find a new continent, but just end up renaming India. But partly, we face a real, solvable search problem when trying to connect our fuzzy constructs and flexible measures. Most measures are used only once. To be clear, we do not want to prevent or reduce refinements of existing constructs and measures. Revisions, translations, and other refinements can contribute to a more coherent, organized literature and improve measurement. We are most concerned with the measures conceived with limited planning and released into the literature without much commitment or much of a life expectancy. In ontologies, these are sometimes referred to as “orphan nodes.”
September 29, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
rjhfmstr.bsky.social
🚨 New preprint out!
We reconstructed parental haplotypes in >440k individuals (UK & Estonian biobanks) to estimate assortative mating directly in the parental generation.
This reveals intensified assortment in recent generations.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 26, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
dr-appie.bsky.social
The largest study on late life virginity, based on >400k individuals, out now in @pnas.org

Open access link: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Shoutout to shared first author @laurawesseldijk.bsky.social ❤️

Thread below 👇🏽
September 16, 2025 at 8:26 PM
hfsunde.bsky.social
I tried making a figure explaining how the sum of variances law can be understood as the diagonal of a bivariate normal, and how a correlation between the two antecedent variables — such as under assortative mating — will result in greater variance and more cases above a threshold.
September 10, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
hfsunde.bsky.social
First, it is important to note that “assortative mating” is not synonymous with “partner similarity”. Instead, assortment is only one of several processes that can lead to partner similarity, the others being convergence, stratification, and inbreeding.
June 11, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
thomaskleppesto.bsky.social
We have a new paper out, led by the great @hfsunde.bsky.social! We find that the correlation between parental income and offspring mental disorders may be partly causal in adolescence (phenotypic transmission), but that it is largely explained by passive genetic transmission in adulthood.
hfsunde.bsky.social Hans Fredrik Sunde @hfsunde.bsky.social · Aug 4
Our new paper is out today! 🎉 In it, we use administrative register data to document how psychiatric disorders are strongly linked to parental income, from childhood far into adulthood. Furthermore, we attempt to separate causation and selection using kinship-based models.
doi.org/10.1111/jcpp...
August 7, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Hans Fredrik Sunde
hfsunde.bsky.social
Accompanying the paper is an interactive web page with figures and tables showing the prevalence of psychological codes in the ICPC-2 by age, sex, and parental income quartile. Check it out here:
hfsu.shinyapps.io/prevalence_b...
August 4, 2025 at 8:45 PM