@jordanmoon.bsky.social
Social psychologist @ University of Southampton. Formerly at Brunel University of London and Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. PhD from Arizona State University. Religion, morality, etc. W: https://www.jordanwmoon.com
A very important study. Many figured that chimp warfare was adaptive. Now we have proof. Lethal displacement of a neighbor doubled fertility and even had a greater impact on survivorship. However, as usual we need more details as other questions emerge.
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
MY NEW OP-ED: Why I doubt surveys suggesting a quiet revival among young adults in Britain www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/why-...
University of Southampton is hiring for FIVE permanent positions, including in social psychology. Please share with anyone on the job market!
Three positions in social/clinical/health psychology:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPW618/l...
Two cognitive/clinical neuro:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPW615/l...
New paper: Three evolutionary radiations shaped the evolution of global religious diversity
This video was made about our folk medicine project. It talks about our recent PNAS project, and also this study we did in Mauritius www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
New in Science, Macaques tap to the beat.
Very cool study for its main result and its null one: consistent with nearly every other comparative study of music, monkeys don't differentiate beats by their relative strength—which even young children do innately. Monkeys have rhythm but not meter!
I wrote a paper on my least favourite theory of religion: HADD
It’s good, you should read it! 😆
Rate your score on Factor Fexcectorn.
Well done, Scientific Reports. pubpeer.com/publications...
A fascinating and deeply thoughtful analysis of the different motivations for faculty diversity by @azimshariff.bsky.social --essential reading for anyone interested in this issue (either pro- or anti-DEI)
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Excited to be co-organizing this year's religion and spirituality preconference with @ncaluori.bsky.social, Cindel White, and @jordanmoon.bsky.social. See Nava's great thread below for our awesome group of invited speakers. We are accepting applications for talks, data blitzes, and posters!
There is a lot of hype about AI and empathy, but what role do we really want AI to play in enhancing empathy? 🤖 Here, Ethan Landes and I argue that AI should only develop human empathy as a tool for moral growth, not replace it 👇
osf.io/preprints/ps...
@ethanlandes.bsky.social
As others have pointed out, ppl who favor abortion are sometimes inconsistent—many say abortion should be legal for “bodily autonomy” but are okay with laws about seatbelts or food regulations. In short, we all probably choose nice-sounding moral principles when they’re available
Although abortion opposition is an interesting case to examine this, we don’t think this phenomenon is limited to opponents of abortion
These findings lend relatively more support to the strategic account--importantly, these results also hold when controlling for things like religiosity and conservatism, so they don't seem to be just group-based heuristics
Perhaps more importantly, if we look only at the strongest abortion opponents (who strongly agree that abortion is murder), these participants show pretty strong support for the punishment and abstinence-only policies, but significantly less support for comprehensive sex ed
The more people oppose abortion (that is, agree with statements like "abortion is murder"), the more they like policies like punishment and abstinence-only--but the *less* they like comprehensive sex ed
Notably, comprehensive sex education really only differs from abstinence-only education in not explicitly being against casual sex
In pre-registered studies, we tested between these accounts by experimentally assigning people to rate bills that propose to reduce abortions in different ways, e.g., punish women getting abortions, abstinence-only sex ed, or comprehensive sex ed
This “Strategic Account” would suggest that abortion opponents don’t just support any policy that prevents abortions, but they will especially favor policies that do so while simultaneously discouraging casual sex
But people might have other goals influencing judgments. People who disapprove of casual sex also tend to disapprove of abortion, and many people view abortion bans as being more about discouraging casual sex
If abortion opposition is all about reducing harm toward the unborn (what we call the "face-value account"), then we might expect people who oppose abortion to support whatever policies might reduce abortions
New paper out in SPPS w/
@jaimiekrems.bsky.social
(open access)
doi.org/10.1177/1948...
People who oppose abortion typically suggest that their position is motivated by concern for the unborn. But is there more going on?
Are women morally wonderful? Excited by this paper, with
@jowylie.bsky.social, @anagantman.bsky.social, @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social, Peter Mende-Siedlecki, and Heleni Singer.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
1/ 🌟📢 Applications for our MSc in Psychology, Culture & Evolution at @brunelpsy.bsky.social @brunelgradschool.bsky.social are OPEN for 2025/26 🎓 📢
Ever wondered how culture 🌍 and evolution 🧬 shape human behaviour? 🤔 This interdisciplinary program might be for you 🧵
Where do moralizing religions come from? Useless cognitive by-products?Cultural group selection for complex societies?
Our Psych Review paper argues: neither. Let’s rethink their cognitive & evolutionary origins🧵
w/ @manvir.bsky.social @nbaumard @jbaptistandre.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1037/rev0...
The Manybabies4 paper is out! Infants' Social Evaluation of Helpers and Hinderers: A Large-Scale, Multi-Lab, Coordinated Replication Study onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... 1000 babies tested in 37 labs; "Overall, 49.34% of infants preferred Helpers over Hinderers in the social condition"
1/ 🌟 @PNASNews Special Feature: Half a Century of Cultural Evolution 🎉
With @amesoudi.bsky.social, @glupyan.bsky.social & Pierce Edmiston, we review the field's key experimental methods, findings, and critiques—and present a new lab experiment. 👇
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
📢📢📢💫 CCE's seminar series is kicking off in November with some amazing speakers lined up 💫📢📢📢
These are 🔓 open to all - in person and online - joining information shared closer to the date 📅
⏲️ Talks are scheduled between 12:30 - 14:00
@Bruneluni
Our Evolutionary Anthropology seminars are starting up again in October at UCL Anthropology. Free/open to all, and we're a friendly bunch!
evoanthucl.wixsite.com/blog/post/op...
#EvoAnth #BioAnth