🔥The 9th Round of Easy Loan, Earn $40 Reward is in progress❗️ ⏰ Promotion Period: January 15th - Feburary 15th, 2025 👉 Register now and check more details at gate.io/campaigns/358

'the Easter bunny is an ancient pagan remnant!' The bunny wasn't even a bunny until the late 19th century blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/…

Are you a PhD student or postdoc looking to expand your teaching skills? The BPS Undergraduate Research Assistantship Scheme applications are now open! Secure funding to offer an undergraduate a summer research assistantship. Apply by 9th March: bps.org.uk/news/undergrad…

Out in Nature Human Behaviour 🔥 Can people tell true from false news? Yes! Our meta-analysis shows that people rate true news as more accurate than false news (d = 1.12) and were better at spotting false news than at recognizing true news (d = 0.32).

New cultural evolution modelling paper with Benoît de Courson on PNASNews! "Weak individual preferences stabilize culture" A quick 🧵 pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

We constructed emotional arcs from over 6.763 song lyrics […] songs characterized by sorrowful plots and endings receive higher scores than those with more joyful emotional themes. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Really interesting looking opportunity with Alberto Acerbi and Chiara Bonacchi

My new book "Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can't Look Away" is now available for pre-order from wherever you buy books. (pre-order link in reply). If you think your followers would be interested, please share it with them!

Creative Writing student University of Winchester Georgiana Lopata, from Romania, has put together an anthology of writing about home and belonging by fellow international students. 'Home | Away' is now available online. Find out more at tinyurl.com/mrxawnxw

New Pub! Our paper, “Agent-Based Modeling for Psychological Research on Social Phenomena,” has been accepted for publication in American Psychologist: doi.org/10.1037/amp000… You can read the preprint here: doi.org/10.31234/osf.i…

In 2023, I wrote about the psychology of dad jokes for The Psychologist (and made it onto the cover of the magazine!) Two years on, they’ve asked me to reflect back. I write about the experience of having my piece go semi-viral and my favourite relevant research that has come out since.

Two PhDs with me on offer, focusing on language, information, well-being, and the attention economy. Deadline 14 April. Project-Linked Studentships: warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/…

📺 Feel like a small break from scrolling to tell us about your favourite TV/movie genre? 🎞️ Here is a 5-10 minute survey for our latest research project on understanding the functions of fiction: brookeshls.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eX… Thanks very much for participating!

Two Fully-Funded PhD positions at University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau ! Come help us understand the past and future of global cultural and linguistic diversity. findaphd.com/phds/project/u…

How does playing football in a live tournament or online (FIFA) affect our first impressions? New (Smith, Satchell, Randell & Lancaster) paper at Interpersona. Likeability improved after playing against anyone in any context and some performance effects osf.io/preprints/psya…

"The Appeal of Insight: Why Riddles and Whodunits Captivate Us" - These studies contribute to a growing literature in which the cultural success of fictional stories is explained by their ability to tap into specific cognitive mechanisms. osf.io/preprints/psya…

Deadline in 5 days! Work with Chiara Bonacchi and myself for a 3-year postdoc based in Edinburgh. Cultural evolution + social media data to study how archaeological content fuels (or not) contemporary hostility online.

I'm hiring! 2 x PhDs and 1 x PostDoc, to work with me at Uni Zurich on a project investigating how semantic patterns differ by geographic region. Linguistic typology, data science, spatial analysis, phylogenetic methods, potential fieldwork... REPOST 🙏 comparativelinguistics.uzh.ch/en/jobs.html

8 PhD scholarships in Sociology and Social Research - University of Trento - deadline 15th May unitn.it/en/phd/sociolo…

Interested in the evolution of human language and in understanding the pressures that shape languages today? Come do a PhD with me! Fully funded PhD position available in my group MaxPlanck-Psycholinguistics, application deadline June 2nd: mpi.nl/career-educati…

Exactly! We've written a review of the functions of imagination and fiction & they include: planning/future thinking, coping/emo regulation, social bonding & identity shaping. It's time we step away from dismissing the arts as frivolities! Mathias Clasen doi.org/10.31234/osf.i…