Lara Wood

"If we lose hope, we're doomed."

We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.

A public and private persona | BPS Kirsty Graham (University of York) examines the contradictions in a new documentary about Jane Goodall.

RIP Jane Goodall... this documentary made a deep impression on me
www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

Jane totally changed the conversation on animal culture, tool use, emotions and communication. She was a fierce advocate for animals but also paved women’s rights to be explorers, scientists, and activists. I introduced her to my own baby primate many moons ago. Jane, have fun with David Greybeard 💛

Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says The panel finds that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians during the war.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Image from the blog showing 5 solutions to countering scientific racism 1. Introduce students to the complexities of developmental processes 2. Introduce students to the complexities of inheritance processes 3. Explain that variation between racialised groups in behavioural and cultural traits is not caused by genetic differences 4. Debunk scientific racism in school and university level science curricula 5. Acknowledge and contextualised the racist histories of academic fields

Race Isn’t Biological — So Why Do So Many Still Think It Is?

@kevinlala.bsky.social and @kztwyman.bsky.social blog about their recent paper in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences

www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

Our article "Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience" (with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social, @kztwyman.bsky.social & Marc Feldman) is now published online.

We describe five factors that contribute to the spread of racism and suggest strategies for countering them.

doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

Opinion | Medicine Still Treats Race as Biology. As a Physician, I Choose Evidence Instead. Treatment should be tailored to underlying causes of poor health

This is an important essay. Surprisingly the comments push back, with only scant evidence to support arguments for the use of race as a biological construct.

Medicine Still Treats Race as Biology. As a Physician, I Choose Evidence Instead. www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

Amazing work- you might be interested in my recent paper- onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

For the @puddingviz.bsky.social, I explored which animals we gender, and why.

Come for the extremely cute interactive viz of animals, stay for the extremely nerdy etymology of the ladybug.

Story: pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...

Bears Will Be Boys A data analysis of animal gender in children’s books

Great article showing that animal characters are gendered in children's books too- pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...

(see onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... for my study looking at this in films)

What can schools do to help end sexism? - End Sexism in Schools The question "what can schools do to end sexism?" is a hot topic. Dr Lara Wood gives 8 simple actions for schools beyond PSHE.

What can schools do to help end sexism?

Dr Lara Wood, Reader in Socio-Cognitive Development at Abertay University, argues that to end sexism and misogyny in schools, we need to start young and be proactive in positively challenging children’s behaviour.

@larawood.bsky.social

Genes, culture, and scientific racism - PubMed Quantitative studies of cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution (henceforth "CE" and "GCC") emerged in the 1970s, in the aftermath of the "race and intelligence quotient (IQ)" and "human socio...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39556747/

#Resistance tools from bsky.app/profile/whys... when asked “why are we funding this” from uncles & Senators alike.

www.americanscientist.org/article/%E2%...

Shoutout bsky.app/profile/amer... for keeping the lights on while we reclaim #Science from the privatizing dismantlers.

#StandUpForScience

What can schools do to help end sexism? - End Sexism in Schools The question "what can schools do to end sexism?" is a hot topic. Dr Lara Wood gives 8 simple actions for schools beyond PSHE.

Delighted to write a blog for @endsexisminschools.bsky.social prodiving some evidence-based tips on how educators can challenge sexism in schools

endsexisminschools.org.uk/what-can-sch...

Our Public Spaces Are Failing Teen Girls Op-ed: Adolescent girls are missing from parks, playgrounds — and our gender-blind urban planning. So let’s ask them what they need.

Great to see the conversation in the US around how gender-blind design leaves girls out of parks.

Also great to see Brickfield Park in Bath mentioned – co-created with teenage girls, alongside inspiring examples from Vienna. Awareness is growing!

nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

Join us on the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social executive committee! Shape the field of cultural evolution alongside amazing colleagues @maximederex.bsky.social, @nicolewen.bsky.social, @hyperadapthyrax.bsky.social, @lucymaplin.bsky.social, @ferylbadiani.bsky.social & incoming President Fiona Jordan

Really important work here from @daveleavens.bsky.social and team. Will be covering this in next year's teaching

It's CES election time! We have FOUR positions that have come up for renewal, so please consider nominating yourself or your colleagues. Nominations close June 20th, with voting from June 30th -July 4th.

School of Social Sciences PhD Studentship (Psychology) at Heriot-Watt University Find a School of Social Sciences PhD Studentship (Psychology) on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board in higher education. Click to view more!

🚨 CE PhD opportunity!

@onicatam.bsky.social is looking for PhD applicants interested in projects related to cultural evolution or language evolution for a fully funded scholarships at the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNH532/s...

Did you know that our field guide to cross-cultural research on childhood learning is completely FREE?

books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp...

'Harmful gender stereotypes' in children being shaped by popular animated films Popular animated films could be shaping harmful gender stereotypes in films, according to new research from Abertay University.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2521782...

@socialdevelopment.bsky.social

there are times when the dangers of inaction become sufficiently threatening to individuals or the planet that
scientists who are able and willing to do so will have to enter the public arena and bring their voices to debates of critical societal importance. This is such a time.

A common claim in #EvoPsych is that the persistence of psychological sex differences in gender-egalitarian* countries shows that the differences are innate. I've argued that ignores the highly-gender-unequal media environment. Now @larawood.bsky.social has proved me right!

#EHBEA
#HBES

Sex Is a Spectrum Why human biology is far more expansive than the simple categories of female and male

I've just finished reading @anthrofuentes.bsky.social's book #SexIsASpectrum, a digestible, & evidence-packed exploration of the issues around oversimplifying and essentialising sex/gender.

I wish this was a core textbook for all human science fields!

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Mr Predator and Mrs Prey: Gender Stereotypes in Children's Films Correlate With Explicit and Implicit Gender Stereotyping Children acquire gender stereotypes at a young age and these subsequently influence cognition and behavior. Stereotypes may be learned through a child's direct observation of gender differences as we...

Children’s animated films inaccurately and consistently portray predators as male and prey as female. Young children learn and maintain these gender stereotypes into adulthood.  

See thread by @larawood.bsky.social or read the whole paper
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

I'm THRILLED that our book is out. This book, with other 60 contributors from across the globe (!!!) is a love letter to the science we want to do, and a how-to guide for how to do it. Please read it and share it!

Thanks for RT Rebecca!

PS It was a great experience working with @socialdevelopment.bsky.social's editorial team on this publication. Fair and constructive reviews throughout.

a cartoon of a lion and a warthog with the words thank you above them ALT: a cartoon of a lion and a warthog with the words thank you above them

So... it would be great if we could recognise how culture shapes our (oftentimes innacurate) concepts of gender and be more proactive in challenging both the concepts and their sources!

Thanks for watching folks!