Paul E. Smaldino

Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 4h

What is sexual selection all about... definitionally and mathematically? A super talented PI, Jussi Lehtonen, is looking for a postdoc to work it all out! Deadline end of this month.
ats.talentadore.com/apply/postdo...

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino, Nicholas A. Christakis

Xavier Bonilla @xavierbonilla.bsky.social · 22h

I am happy to share the conversation I had with @mgurven.bsky.social about the evolutionary aspects of humans living seven decades. Hope everyone enjoys! @princetonupress.bsky.social convergingdialogues.substack.com/p/449-living...

#449 - Living for Seven Decades: A Dialogue with Michael Gurven

Listen now | In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michael Gurven about humans living for seven decades.

convergingdialogues.substack.com

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 3d

Incidentally, the book for the latter is currently on sale for many regions. press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

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by Paul E. Smaldino — Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 3d

Honored to have won TWO Advancing Cultural Evolution Course Design Awards for my courses “Cultural Evolution” and “Modeling Social Behavior”.

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 6d

We're pleased to announce and congratulate the winners of the Advancing Cultural Evolution Course Design Awards! This competition recognises leading educators in the field of cultural evolution and their existing efforts to advance its teaching.

We have 7 winners and 2 runners up (listed below):

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by Brooke Harrington — Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 5d

What Thiel is saying about tax havens = what Altman is saying about copyright:

"I can't be rich unless you let me steal from you."

This is how Broligarchs differ from oligarchs of yore: the latter tried to hide their thievery; the Broligarchs trumpet their entitlement to steal as a natural right.

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino, Rebecca Sear, Alex Mesoudi

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 6d

We're pleased to announce and congratulate the winners of the Advancing Cultural Evolution Course Design Awards! This competition recognises leading educators in the field of cultural evolution and their existing efforts to advance its teaching.

We have 7 winners and 2 runners up (listed below):

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 6d

It is! Thanks!

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 7d

I went to the Harvard Dataverse page — the download link just goes to a readme file that says the bit about data being available after publication.

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 7d

Very cool, looks interesting and useful to a project we’re working on. Quick question: trying to access your data we just get a note: “Replication data will be posted upon publication of the article.”
Now that it’s published, will you be posting the data soon?

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino, Anna O. Law, Richard S.J. Tol , and 5 more Paul E. Smaldino, Anna O. Law, Richard S.J. Tol, Steve Peers, Jonathan Wolff, Fabián Muniesa, David S. Cohen, Christina Ho

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 8d

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

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by Paul E. Smaldino — Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Efrén O. Pérez

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 9d

I've written a bit about how information architectures shape our societies (www.nature.com/articles/s44...). This could foment a dramatic shift if dominant communication channels become superordinate to governmental regulation, controlled by one crazed billionaire.

Peter Sherman Crosby @pscrosby.bsky.social · 16d

Elon Musk’s latest power grab points in a clear direction (I'd say a monopoly) wapo.st/3IlM56R

Opinion | Elon Musk’s latest power grab points in a clear direction

His SpaceX deal could fundamentally alter the relationship between a state and its citizens.

wapo.st

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by Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò — Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 10d

the usual useful list:

go.bsky.app/2Fq4P6e

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 10d

Time for my annual reminder that, thanks to the precedent set by economists, ANY group can establish their own Nobel Prize for ANYTHING. Come on people, get creative.

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 12d

😬

by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 12d

Alas, this was summer 2024. I’ll definitely ping you if/when I’m back! It’d be great to reconnect.

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 14d

Our paper does not discuss polarization at all, only the need to lower SES groups to be more deliberately class conscious re from whom they learn about risk behavior. Read it, and then see if you still think there’s a conflict.

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 15d

Right, I'm familiar with your paper. In our model, we don't have political/ethnic identity groups, and parochialism here is short-hand for socioeconomic class similarity, so I don't think there's any conflict there.

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by Paul E. Smaldino — Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 16d

Happy to see this work published in Psych Review. It's an impressive and important bit of theory/modeling about how we learn about decision-making under risk. Here's a slide with the super-coarse-grained summary of our results. Read the paper for (much) more. osf.io/preprints/so...

Modeling the evolution of peer and vertical/oblique learning strategies for gambles under uncertainty
We recover many empirical results and generate new hypotheses:
Worse conditions lead to more pessimistic behavior
Younger people are overly optimistic
Wealthy people can afford to take more risks
Payoff-biased learning for the rich, parochialism for the poor
Poor people may be slower to adapt to environmental change, creating the appearance of “poverty traps”

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino, Efrén O. Pérez

Peter Sherman Crosby @pscrosby.bsky.social · 16d

Elon Musk’s latest power grab points in a clear direction (I'd say a monopoly) wapo.st/3IlM56R

Opinion | Elon Musk’s latest power grab points in a clear direction

His SpaceX deal could fundamentally alter the relationship between a state and its citizens.

wapo.st

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 18d

Understood, and fair enough. If there are specific papers you've found particularly interesting or compelling, especially ones making points or highlighting data often ignored by us northerners, I'd love a list. It's much appreciated.

by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 18d

The talk was about cultural evolution, but on the slide in question I was specifically about *models* of cultural evolutionary processes.

I'm not arguing about whether I would benefit from reading more authors from the global south -- I would! I'm just clarifying what's going on here in particular

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 18d

The examples in the slide you showed were exclusively about formal modeling. So that is what we're talking about.

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino

Alejandro Pérez Velilla @apvelilla.bsky.social · 19d

@psmaldino.bsky.social and I also made a contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology on how an integrative view spanning evolutionary, developmental and cultural influences on risk behavior can help us understand decisions under risk—a good companion piece. osf.io/preprints/so...

OSF

osf.io

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino

Alejandro Pérez Velilla @apvelilla.bsky.social · 19d

I am happy to announce that our project on risk and social learning is now in press at Psychological Review. Several new additions and revisions thanks to detailed feedback from colleagues and anonymous reviewers. osf.io/preprints/so...
@psmaldino.bsky.social @babeheim.bsky.social

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 19d

The point of the suggestive list was to list some highly cited papers my audience might be familiar with, it’s not a comprehensive lit review. AFAIK, formal modeling work in these fields from the global south is still underrepresented. I’m happy to be proven wrong if you have specific suggestions.

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino, Anna O. Law, Kai Arzheimer , and 4 more Paul E. Smaldino, Anna O. Law, Kai Arzheimer, Simon Otjes, Adrian Vickers, Samantha Brennan, David S. Tanenhaus

Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 20d

Morning walk

Wheat paste poster that says the all the world is dying and the new world struggles to be born now is the time of monsters. There's a picture of Elmo

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 21d

Seen in the hallways of Aarhus University. <<Chef’s kiss>>

Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky, images from their 1971 televised debate. Text reads (from Everything Everywhere All At Once): “I wanted to say, in another life, I would have really liked just doing taxes and laundry with you.”

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Reposted by Paul E. Smaldino

NERDS @nerdsitu.bsky.social · 22d

It was great to have Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social with us today, discussing evolutionary approaches to human culture and society. As a bonus, we learned why we are wearing pants.

Speaker in front of screen showing colorful images of horse riders.

Seminar room with about 20 people listening to speaker being introduced

Speaker in front of title slide, audience in foreground

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 22d

“Well, the next time someone brings up a terrible anecdote about Cambodia or Vietnam, I will definitely drop the Star Wars story to show that people have two sides.”

Chotiner deserves a Pulitzer for this.

Isaac Chotiner @ichotiner.bsky.social · 23d

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

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by Paul E. Smaldino

Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 22d

The interviewer deserves a Pulitzer Prize.

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Fields & subjects