Human Behavior & Evolution Society

If you are in the Ann Arbor, MI, area, consider attending the lecture on October 24!

Big news! HBES President Ed Hagen has been awarded the inaugural Evolution in the Public Eye Award 🎉
The EPE Award honors outstanding contributions to the public understanding of evolutionary perspectives on behavior. For more information, follow this: sites.lsa.umich.edu/ehap/evoluti...

Full guidelines and requirements are available on the conference website.

🔗 Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/hbes2026

We look forward to your contributions to HBES2026!

#HBES2026

We’re delighted to share that the 37th annual Human Behavior and Evolution Society conference (HBES2026) website is now live!

#HBES2026

Bowdoin College Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Anthropology (Health) - Brunswick, Maine job with Bowdoin College, Department of Anthropology | 693747 Bowdoin seeks a TT Asst Professor cultural anthropologist whose research and teaching focus on health, medicine, or well-being.

#NowHiring: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of #Anthropology (Health) – BowdoinCollege in #BrunswickME

careercenter.americananthro.org/job/693747/b...

Payne's Prairire, where you could watch the sunset every evening if you came to UF

🚨 TT job alert! 🚨 The University of Florida is hiring an Assistant Professor in Social Psychology; open to ALL AREAS within social psych.

Review begins 10/10.

Job ad here: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

I'm co-chair of the search committee and happy to answer questions! 🧵

HBES 2025 Conference Survey Results - HBES HBES Members, I am writing in my capacity as Communications Officer to share with you survey results about our recent meeting in Atlantic City. We had 127 responses, most of whom are faculty at…

📊 HBES 2025 Conference Survey Results are out!
Read the highlights from member feedback after our Atlantic City meeting:

These job ads have now been posted! 🎉

Social/Personality: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05020

Biological Basis of Behavior: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05054

Please spread the word!

Too Many Preferences, Too Little Evolution: Multivariate Mate Choice and the Limits of Mate Preference Evolution - HBES – by Kaitlyn Harper As evolutionary psychologists, we love a good story about sexual selection. They usually go like this: humans have evolved to prefer a given trait (e.g. intelligence, facial…

What happens to mate preference evolution when people choose partners based on up to ten traits instead of just one or two? Does multivariate mate choice weaken preference evolution? Learn more in Kaitlyn Harper et al.’s latest #HBESblog:

Free-Form Friday event titled 'How Psychology Students Are Navigating Funding Uncertainty' scheduled for August 22, 2-3 PM ET, featuring four university speakers.

🗓️Tomorrow, 2-3 PM ET: Join our next Free-Form Friday session as members of SPSP's Student Committee discuss how students are navigating the unpredictable, ever-changing funding environment for research funding in the United States.

✍️Sign up here: ow.ly/wmQR50WJy5K

🧠 Want to integrate cultural evolution into your course using award winning materials created by the field's experts, and get paid $2000 to do it? 💵

🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards.

🔖 Apply here: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Debt beyond money: how borrowing triggers our social emotions - HBES — by Maria Brackin Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. – William Shakespeare, Hamlet Suppose that you borrow...

#HBESblog Borrowing triggers social emotions like guilt and gratitude based on the welfare tradeoff ratio — the costs and benefits between borrower and lender. Learn more in Maria Brackin & Hugo Mercier’s latest HBES blog post:

YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast) Drugs, Delusions, and Depression with Ed Hagen

This week, Drugs, Delusions, and Depression with @edhagen.net A wild ride!

youtu.be/fWawIyNAjTc

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-7srpz...

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

Postdoc focusing on interdependence and cooperation - University of Arizona - HBES Dear colleagues, I wanted to circulate an opening for a postdoctoral position, and would like to kindly ask that you share this opportunity with grad students who may be interested in working with me…

Postdoc Opening | University of Arizona
The SPECIEs Lab is hiring a 3-year postdoc.
Focus: interdependence, cooperation, fieldwork w/ the Mayangna (Nicaragua), cross-cultural surveys, experiments.
🔗

Biological Anthropology Faculty Hire - University of Minnesota Twin Cities - HBES UMN Search for a Biological Anthropologist in 2025-2026 About the Position The Department of Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities invites application...

Faculty Opening | University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
The Department of Anthropology invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Biological Anthropology (Paleoanthropology), starting Fall 2026.
🗓️ Priority deadline: Oct 17, 2025
www.hbes.com/biological-a...

Studying the rarity of collective music-making in four indigenous societies - HBES – by Dor Shilton, Aniruddh D. Patel, Kim Hill, and Chris von Rueden Many think that music evolved to promote or signal social cohesion. However, there are several societies in which group singing and ...

Many think music evolved to promote social cohesion. But in some indigenous societies, collective singing & dancing are rare. Why? Dor Shilton and co-authors explore 4 societies, testing hypotheses on collective action, musical expertise & style.⬇️
www.hbes.com/studying-the...

Assistant Professor in Traditional Ecological Knowledge - Stanford - HBES We seek applicants for a tenure-track appointment at the assistant professor level in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability in the field of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (also referred to as ...

🚨 Job Post: Assistant Professor in Traditional Ecological Knowledge at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

Focus on Indigenous & local knowledge for social & environmental sustainability.
www.hbes.com/assistant-pr...

🚨 Faculty Positions in Biological Anthropology @ The University of Western Australia! 🚨
📍 Open Roles:
Lecturer in Biological Anthropology: external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/en/job/52090...
Associate Professor in Biological Anthropology: external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/en/job/52090...

Just one week left to enter our Photography Competition! Categories include Astronomy, Behaviour, Earth Science & Climatology, Ecology & Environmental Science, and Microimaging. Find out more: royalsociety.org/journals/pub... #RSPphotocomp

Chicago skyline at dusk with illuminated skyscrapers and the Chicago River, promoting SPSP 2026 Annual Convention in February.

👋Don't forget: Tomorrow is the last day to submit a podium presentation session for #SPSP2026 in Chicago! This includes Symposia, Single Papers, Data Blitzes, and Professional Development (Workshops + Sessions). Learn more and submit below!

🔗: ow.ly/w61c50WqxLl

📢 Job Opportunity!
The University of Pittsburgh is hiring a Postdoctoral Associate to work with Professor Machery on his new project, Philosophy for Better Minds.
cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

📅Let's meet on Dec 4 & 5 to ̶d̶i̶s̶g̶u̶s̶t̶ discuss about Disgust accross borders, a theme that's anything but tasteless !

👃 As you'll see very soon, the program is still appetizing.

⬇️Interested in presenting? Subdmissions are now open!⬇️
@cmolho.bsky.social @csarabian.bsky.social @atognetti.bsky.social

Junior Specialist-Lab for Infant Learning And Cognition (LILAC), Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences University of California Santa Barbara is hiring. Apply now!

I'm hiring a full-time #labmanager for my new Lab for Infant Learning and Cognition (LILAC) at UCSB! The start date is flexible, but could be as early as August 1, 2025. Application review begins July 17th and will continue until the position is filled 👶🪴

recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02992

#academicjobs

Why We Keep Choosing Strongmen as Leaders: A Global Experiment Reveals an Evolutionary Secret - HBES – by Lasse Laustsen & Mark van Vugt Across the globe and throughout history, people have repeatedly turned to dominant, authoritarian leaders—figures like Julius Caesar, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Tru...

Why do we keep choosing authoritarian strongmen as leaders? Find out in Lasse Laustsen & Mark van Vugt’s HBES blog post about their cross-cultural study in 25 countries on the link between intergroup conflict and face preferences in leaders: www.hbes.com/why_we_keep_...

When Our Ancestors Stopped Being Bullies: The First Great Social Revolution of Early Humans - HBES – by Michael McBride Imagine a world where the biggest, strongest individual gets to eat first, mate first, and make decisions while everyone else cowers in submission. This was the reality for our an...

When & why did our ancestors switch from bullying in traditional dominance hierarchies (e.g. many species) to the “reverse dominance hierarchy” where bullies are suppressed by coalitions? Find out in Michael McBride’s latest HBES blog post: www.hbes.com/when-our-anc...

Blueprints of Language in Chimpanzee Interactions - HBES – by Bas van Boekholt & Simone Pika. Photo credit by Bas van Boekholt The complexity of human language has no counterpart in the animal kingdom, even though some basic building blocks can be found in ...

What language precursors are found in chimpanzees? Do they share they turn-taking of signals that humans do? Find out in Bas van Boekholt & Simone Pika’s latest HBES blog post: www.hbes.com/blueprints_o...

Reconciling Our Three Traditions: Human Behavioral Ecology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Cultural Evolution - HBES – by Nicolas Baumard & Jean-Baptiste André The evolutionary social sciences are grounded in the idea that evolutionary theory provides a unified framework to explain human behavior, including social n...

Nicolas Baumard & Jean-Baptiste Andre’s “ecological view of culture” provides an exciting new perspective that links Behavioral Ecology, Evolutionary Psychology, & Cultural Evolution. Read more in their HBES blog post: www.hbes.com/reconciling-...

Postdoctoral Researcher in psychology/cognitive science with focus on social learning and cultural evolution Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research? The Mechanisms of Social Behavior lab at the Karolinska Institutet (PI: Björn Lindström) in Stockholm, Sweden is seeking a highly qualified

💥New postdoc position! 💥

Join us to explore how people learn from each other—and how that drives cultural evolution.

Run experiments, build computational models & collaborate across Europe w. @lucasmolleman.bsky.social
📍 Stockholm
More info: shorturl.at/CY4wk

The winners of the HBES Don Symons Adaptationism Award (paper in any journal in previous 3 years that best exemplifies the adaptationist programme) goes to Joseph Billingsley and colleagues for their paper in EHB on relationship value, exploitation risk, & forgiveness: doi.org/10.1016/j.ev...

The winners of the HBES Margo Wilson Award (best paper in E&HB the previous year) are Olympia Campbell, Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Gregory Fiorio, & Ruth Mace for the paper “Genetic markers of cousin marriage and honour cultures”. Congratulations!
doi.org/10.1016/j.ev...