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Kristen Syme

@kristensyme.bsky.social
406 followers 897 following 27 posts

Utah State University, Medical Anthropology, Biocultural/Evolutionary Anthropology, Psychology

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Reposted by Kristen Syme
Eric Shattuck @ericshattuck.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If you're thinking about a Masters or PhD in anthropology and you want to study health, infectious disease, and the immune system, please consider applying to work with me! Happy to answer any questions, etc.
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Tanay Katiyar @adigitaltanay.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
All six talks from the Bridging Mental Health Network at Cambridge are now out on YouTube! ft. @timdalgleish.bsky.social @camillanord.bsky.social @kristensyme.bsky.social @mkbruun.bsky.social @realadamhunt.bsky.social @annaalexandrova.bsky.social and Sebastian Rodriguez youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtube.com
Network Talks (2025 - 2026) - YouTube
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Since this piece about contemporary manifestations of eugenics, including “fertility crisis“ narratives, mentions evolutionary psychology, it’s worth noting that evolutionary psychologists are now actively promoting those “fertility crisis” claims in their journals
Screenshot of the title of a paper published in the Evolutionary Psychology section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology:

“An evolutionary case for polygyny to counter demographic collapse”Screenshot of the title of a paper published in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science

“Bridging a Reproductively Oriented Evolutionary Psychology and Interdisciplinary Perspectives to the Emerging Reproductive Crisis”
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
A reminder that more is not better.
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
New preprint 🚨: We investigated whether supervised ML can be used to explore if patterns of OCM codes predict a target OCM code, like Informal Ingroup Justice (627) or Sorcery (754), within HRAF paragraphs tagged 'Offenses Against Life' (OCM 682). 1/2
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Michael Munnik @michaelmunnik.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This case and verdict need more attention, given the current context. It puts into stark relief the unsustainability of the argument from Farage and all the racists. Non-white as perpetrator? National crisis. Non-white as victim? Just part of life's rich pageant, you know...
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Tanay Katiyar @adigitaltanay.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
For the theme of "Cross-Cultural & Ethnographic Perspectives", the Bridging Mental Health Network at Cambridge hosted two brilliant talks. Check them out for historical easter-eggs in psychiatry + rich story-telling Talk 1: @kristensyme.bsky.social youtu.be/-QEarzXEecw?... 🧵
youtu.be
Suicide as Social Protest: Ethnographic Evidence from 53 Cultures | Kristen Syme
YouTube video by The Bridging Mental Health Network
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Mahmoud Elsherif @mamsmandrill.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Post 1/14 We are incredibly honored to receive the Dorothy Bishop Prize. But looking at the "polished" statements of the past, we can’t be silent. It is easy to celebrate "inclusivity," but we cannot ignore the cost of current research culture. This award is a bittersweet reminder of a struggle. 🧵
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 13/02/2026
Institutions are the social technologies that power our world, allowing us to rely on complete strangers every day of our lives. But how do we ensure that this trust isn’t misplaced? In this Essay, the game theorist Julien Lie-Panis explores what makes institutions function @jliep.bsky.social
buff.ly
Institutions are how we scale up cooperation among millions | Aeon Essays
Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Paper 🚨 We found that LLMs can match or exceed human coders on theoretical variables assessing the form and function of ritual fasting. Guided by theory and ethical human oversight, LLMs can generate units of cultural analysis for cross‑cultural theoretical tests. #BioAnth doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
doi.org
Generating units of cultural analysis with large language models: methods and validation for scalable cross-cultural research
Abstract. We present a transparent, human-in-the-loop framework that uses large language models (LLMs) to transform ethnographic texts into binary, structu
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Tanay Katiyar @adigitaltanay.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
My first paper, out in PsychReview!! Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro: Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health? A 🧵
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Unfortunately, this is not surprising coming from Leiden University. Xenophobic and overtly racist practices by security staff are not isolated incidents—they’re institutionalized. Academic spaces should foster inclusion, not paranoia. www.mareonline.nl/en/news/how-...
mareonline.nl
How one Arabic-speaking man sent university security into a panic: ‘Something is brewing’
Why was the Wijnhaven building closed two years ago and why has university security been tightened since? Newly released documents under the Open Government Act (WOO) reveal that the police and the un...
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 14/12/2023
it's wild that R, the ubiquitous statistical computing language, was co-created by a Māori prof (Ross Ihaka) — and yet the vast majority of scientists who use R don't know this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science
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The Psychologist @psychmag.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Why we strike: Bargaining as an expression of human cooperation. Dr @kristensyme.bsky.social considers labour action, and draws parallels with family conflict… www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...
bps.org.uk
Why we strike: Bargaining as an expression of human cooperation | BPS
Dr Kristen Syme considers labour action, and draws parallels with family conflict…
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 28/09/2025
"After nearly 40 years, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, or ARCUS, will close September 30." "The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States funded programs that aided Indigenous communities and tracked melting sea ice, among dozens of initiatives."
grist.org
After Trump cut the National Science Foundation by 56 percent, a venerable Arctic research center closes its doors
The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States funded programs that aided Indigenous communities and tracked melting sea ice, among dozens of initiatives.
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WSU Department of Anthropology @wsuanthropology.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
📝 Writing Wednesday! Ph.D. Candidate Michael Gaffney first-authored an article on on how children communicate their needs through crying. This research was recently published in Human Nature, and his photo taken in Utila, Honduras made the cover image! Article: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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Rod Munday @rodmunday.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Colleagues based at UK universities: please sign and share this letter to support Gazan students coming to study in the UK, in order to request Governmental deferral of the biometric data requirement and safe evacuation.
docs.google.com
Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities
More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...
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MPI-EVA Leipzig @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Challenging alpha male’ norms: new study across #primates reveals that power relationships between males and females are less clear-cut than expected. An intl. team including D. Lukas @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social shows that context matters for which sex has power www.mpg.de/24986976/063...
mpg.de
Beyond the alpha male
Primate studies challenge male-dominance norms
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Mahmoud Elsherif @mamsmandrill.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Our new commentary on #Dyspraxia is out! We dive into misdiagnosis, lived experiences, identity, and the systemic barriers faced in an ableist world. Read more! 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Irina Barnaveli @barnaveliirina.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Our paper in @natcomms.nature.com, we show how cognitive maps in the hippocampal system could solve the general problem of representing and relating multiple alternative action plans.  doi.org/10.1038/s414... With @doellerlab.bsky.social, Patrick Haggard, @vigano.bsky.social, Daniel Reznik
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Here's the run down of my talk at #EHBEA2025 entitled 'Analysing the Form and Function of Rituals Using Large Language Models: Fasting'. I illustrate how we can use LLMs to measure the constituent properties of rituals across ethnographic texts to test theoretical models on a large-scale.
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
For anyone who needs a crash course on power and resistance: www.newyorker.com/magazine/196...
newyorker.com
James Baldwin: Letter from a Region in My Mind
From 1962: “Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.”
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
"Without theory, one can never understand the general underlying mechanisms that operate in many guises in different situations." Elinor Ostrom in Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Now published! Psychological adaptations for fitness interdependence underlie cooperation across human ecologies. psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
psycnet.apa.org
APA PsycNet
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Important research! War, forced migration, and mental health in youth
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Prof. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Meta-analysis of cooperation studies by Jin et al (2024): 'lower conflict of interests was associated with higher cooperation and... implementation of sanctions (i.e., reward and punishment of behaviors) and... allowing for communication most strongly enhanced cooperation.' #ehbea #culturalevolution
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hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · 09/11/2024
"We demonstrate the clinical relevance of brain connectivity in youth depression and highlight a critical role of functional hub regions, especially those localized to the default mode and dorsal and ventral attention networks in youth MDD." www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
A mega-analysis of functional connectivity and network abnormalities in youth depression - Nature Mental Health
This mega-analysis of brain resting-state functional connectivity in young individuals with major depressive disorder scanned at six sites across four countries identified hub regions of the attention...
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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 07/11/2024
It feels like cultural evolution is going back to the idea that humans are in fact smarter than other animals (which does not seem that crazy indeed…) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Human culture is uniquely open-ended rather than uniquely cumulative - Nature Human Behaviour
How did human culture become ecologically dominant? Morgan and Feldman re-examine existing theoretical accounts and propose that, contrary to previous belief, cumulative change and high transmission f...
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Kristen Syme @kristensyme.bsky.social · 08/11/2024
My new theory paper w/ Dan Balliet accepted to Psych Review, “Fitness Interdependence Underlies Cooperation across Human Ecologies” osf.io/preprints/os...
osf.io
OSF
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