Reka Blazsek

Huh! So in Finnish it’s ‘on Helsinki’ but ‘in Stockholm’?

Happy World Linguistics Day from Budapest, capital of a peculiar linguistic phenomenon--the Hungarian language!

Thrilled to teach again this year, on the evolution of social cognition, at the Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences! Apply before December 15th 👇

Brochure: lnkd.in/e_R7cQTP
Application: lnkd.in/eey-fEJ

Are these the happiest PhD students in the world? Brazil, Australia and Italy have the highest satisfaction scores in Nature’s global 2025 PhD survey — but are these nations really the best places to do a doctorate?

Brazil, Australia and Italy have the highest satisfaction scores in Nature’s global 2025 PhD survey. A Nature Careers article examines what makes earning a doctorate in these countries different. #Academicsky 🧪

Sometimes my devices misunderstand my (arguably not so heavy) Hungarian accent and Siri activates when I say "see..." but it never activates in the rare occasions when I do intend to use Siri. Which is for entertainment purposes, not timers. Siri is quite good at telling dad jokes.

YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast) Language and Communication with Thom Scott-Phillips

This week, Language and Communication (and the Lindy Hop) with @thomscottphillips.bsky.social!

youtu.be/Gex5b6Nbq7I?...

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-dur6p-...

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

I've been wondering about this myself too, also more broadly in the context of any intellectual property (eg artistic outputs). Afaik the law in general places more weight on completed & published outputs than to initiated but unfinished ones. Not sure if lay intuitions overlap though.

Who owns new creations? with @jfkominsky.bsky.social & @heintz-c.bsky.social is out in #cogsci2025 proceedings!

escholarship.org/content/qt4m...

Read the full paper here:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 4/4

We find evidence for a model where cues and commonly known norms trigger different readings of ownership & moral judgements via mental state attribution. Also, moral judgements don't correlate with ownership judgements 100% ("he *owns* it but it is wrong"). 3/4

Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives In this eye-opening exploration of who owns what and why, two acclaimed experts uncover the hidden rules of ownership that control our lives.

We might have a hunch that a box of stuff next to a trash can is abandoned and therefore free game, but the same box next to a car is not. Similarly, in some US cities with abundant parking spots, even a piece of cardboard is widely understood as a reservation
(cf www.minethebook.com). 2/4

How do people know that what is owned in the absence of explicit information? Do people make inferences on ownership based on contextual cues, incl others' beliefs and knowledge of norms? 1/4

Happy to see my paper on mind-reading & ownership with @heintz-c.bsky.social out in Cognitive Science! 🧵

Is mind-reading involved in ownership judgments?

By @rekablazsek.bsky.social & @heintz-c.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Brilliant keynote by @laurennross.bsky.social at #cogsci2025 on cognitive science and its philosophy. Lauren pointed out the myriad ways in which cogsci and philosophy support and benefit one another, using explanation and causal reasoning as case studies. Thank you for a great talk!! 🙏

How do social inequalities shape epidemic outcomes?

Our PhD alum Adriana Manna shares insights from her award-winning dissertation on contact patterns, vaccination gaps & a novel modeling framework.

📖 Interview: bit.ly/44uT6KF

#NetworkScience #EpidemicModeling

YouTube video by The Dissenter #1120 Pascal Boyer: Ritualized Behavior, Ownership Psychology, and Victim-Devaluation

New episode (1120), my second interview with Dr. Pascal Boyer. We talk about ritualized behavior, ownership #Psychology, and victim-devaluation. #Anthropology #Science

YouTube: youtu.be/ZcvVxnyFQoo
Podcast: bit.ly/46v51JL

From Questions to Answers? From Questions to Understanding? + the subtitle, which is great imo

I was having trouble logging in yesterday but today it works ok. Maybe this is a +ve sign of troubleshooting

From the changemyview community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the changemyview community

Hats off to Reddit mods who handled the case very well.
www.reddit.com/r/changemyvi...

‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment.

Ethics of AI researchers violate fundamental ethics norms in academia. Incredible story.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

my revised article arriving at manuscript central

YouTube video by Red Bull Would You Get It Right? 👀

What navigating the academic job market seems like

youtube.com/shorts/S2aQ2...

this is a great paper, Zach! Really enjoyed reading it. Congrats!

Quote: " In sum, leader-directed teaching of opaque cooperative norms would be a mutually beneficial strategy, where the costs incurred by influential teachers are, at least partly, outweighed by the long-term benefits of cultivating cooperation within the group."

Mosaic plot illustrating the relationship between evidence for teaching and non-teaching social learning, based on a binary researcher-coded measure of teaching. "Although instrumental cultural transmission frequently occurs through both teaching and non-teaching social learning, opaque cultural information is predominantly transmitted through teaching, with relatively fewer instances of non-teaching social learning."

With @sheinalew.bsky.social: Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, in @naturecomms.bsky.social

#evolution #culture 🧪 #LeadSciSky #CultEvo

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

One of my favourite memes from the ‘how your email finds me’ series:

Game theory is endlessly fascinating, and @lionelpage.bsky.social can bring its insights to life like none other. His latest (very timely!) post explains why having more power is not necessarily a good thing—The paradox of power: https://buff.ly/4hXE0kB

The Human Mind and the Open Society: Political Intuitions | CEU summer course

More info about topics and faculty list here:
summeruniversity.ceu.edu/courses/2025...

📣 Deadline to apply this great summer school is in a week (14 Feb)!

🧠 ⚖️ The Human Mind and the Open Society: Political Intuitions
July 7–11, 2025, @weareceu.bsky.social Budapest campus