Minhua Yan

Oral History Project Global Week - Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA)

@appliedanthro.bsky.social is running an oral history week for #anthropologists. This looks VERY cool. If I were teaching this semester, I'd ask my students to sign up to interview someone interesting in the field. Check it: appliedanthro.org/oral-history...

🧠 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_...

This looks interesting.

"Bounding causal effects in survey experiments with noncompliance or inattention"

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wvzck...

If you are an active member of @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social, please go vote for our new Executive Ordinary Members. You will have received an email with voting instructions. Voting closes Tuesday!

ICYMI a superb review essay by Ed Glaeser of Al Roth's popular book.
Ed notes that the topic touches on many longstanding questions in economics-- how well do decentralization markets do? What if there are no prices?

Nuts-and-bolts of design and stories of what happened are important too,

Figure from the report showing that the global prevalence of loneliness is 15.8% in all people who responded. The percentages is highest among the youngest individuals of 13-7 years of age, and lowest among the oldest individuals of more than 60 years of age.

New report from the WHO
"From #loneliness to #social connection:
charting a path to healthier societies"

https://www.who.int/groups/commission-on-social-connection/report

Looks like it can be relevant for those of us doing research in related field because […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]

Cultural Evolution Society Elections 2025: Nomination Form Please use this form to submit your nomination(s) for the Executive Committee's open positions. On this page we will ask you for general details. The next pages allow you to choose the position(s) ...

Don't forgot to nominate for positions in our Cultural Evolution Society Elections 2025!

Nomination period now closes July 11th, see the nomination form below for more information:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Research or Regress Penn State research turns bold ideas into real impact—improving lives, growing industries, and solving urgent challenges.

Penn State has started "Research or Regress" to highlight the value and impact of scientific research. It's vital that we talk to the public about our work.

@psuliberalarts.bsky.social @ssripennstate.bsky.social @prcpennstate.bsky.social @rockethics.bsky.social

www.psu.edu/research/rea...

Paper coauthored with Zhizhong Li (Derung norm dynamics project), Yuanmei Li (Derung norm dynamics project), @sarahmathew2025.bsky.social (Arizona State University) and Robert Boyd (Arizona State University).

Now why do people desire to follow the tradition and common practice? In my next field trip I will run different UGs to distinguish 1) avoiding uncertainty, 2) avoiding partner disappointment, and 3) avoiding cognitive burdens by adopting default option.

Please let me know what you think! 3/3

Our study presents two lines of evidence: interviews on real-life cofarming behaviors and attitudes, and ultimatum games framed as cofarming division with post-game surveys. They reach the same conclusion: Derung farmers follow the disliked norm because it is the tradition and common practice. 2/3

Why do people follow disliked social norms? Derung farmers still divide harvest equally by household regardless of labor contribution, although 1) the value of labor increased, 2) they support rewarding labor, and 3) they expect no social costs for rewarding labor. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... 1/3

Author-Paid PublicationFees Corrupt Science and Should Be Abandoned Thomas J. H Morgan & Paul E. Smaldino

As grant money starts drying up, it's more important than ever not to waste it on paying publishers' open access "article processing fees" when we can host PDFs for free. Tom Morgan and I wrote a paper on this, forthcoming at Science and Public Policy. Accepted draft here: osf.io/preprints/os...

Seven Decades An anthropologist uncovers new evidence for the evolutionary origins of human longevity—and explains why growing old is an opportunity, not a burden

Your next Fall read, my new book: SEVEN DECADES: HOW WE EVOLVED TO LIVE LONGER

Longevity is shaped by our evolutionary past—imagine aging as opportunity rather than burden.

Out Sept 16, preorder w/ code PUP30 for 30% discount: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

@princetonupress.bsky.social

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 @mpi-nl.bsky.social, application deadline June 2nd:
www.mpi.nl/career-educa...

Government | Harvard University Browse the latest Government courses from Harvard University.

Hey, got some free cycles this summer? Did you know Harvard offers FREE online courses in the U.S. Constitution, Public policy, Civic Engagement in Constitutional Democracy and more? Share widely and get smarter this summer.

pll.harvard.edu/subject/gove...

Fascinating latest model of Homo sapiens evolution within Africa.

Interesting finding that cultural innovation was accelerated by both population size increases, but also recombination across partially isolated regions (e.g. Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa)

Still welcoming your applications 🤗

Happy to share a PhD opportunity in my new lab at the University of Zurich! Application deadline: June 30. Do not hesitate to contact me for any questions!

This is a great opportunity to work with @yohm.bsky.social, one of the leading researchers in evolutionary game theory these days. 🙂
I can only recommend applying ⬇️

Who is afraid of modelling time as a continuous variable? Most models of ecological and eco-evolutionary processes involve creating trajectories of something, be it population densities, average trait values, or environmental states, over time. This requ...

Totally missed this last year's paper: A great introduction to continuous-time modelling (deterministic & stochastic)!

Thanks to everybody who chimed in!

I arrived at the conclusion that (1) there's a lot of interesting stuff about interactions and (2) the figure I was looking for does not exist.

So, I made it myself! Here's a simple illustration of how to control for confounding in interactions:>

Do you teach a course on cultural evolution?

The @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social is offering Cultural Evolution Course Design Awards

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

$4000 award. Apply for up to 3 courses. Less than 30min per course submission.

Congratulations!

Interested in biology and comparative psychology, and working in an interdisciplinary project and research team? I’m advertising two PhD positions on the evolutionary origins of cooperative sociality and communication (start 1.10.) at the University of Konstanz👇 links below!

Here's the stable link to the most recent version 👀

osf.io/preprints/ps...