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James Winters

@replicatedtypo.bsky.social
1.3K followers 756 following 80 posts

Simulating sci-fi novels and calling it cultural evolution Centre for Culture and Evolution | Brunel University London | j-winters.github.io

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Reposted by James Winters
tal boger @talboger.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We often say that humans struggle to produce random sequences… but what if that's not the whole story? In a new paper, @dorsaamir.bsky.social, @samiyousif.bsky.social & I show that context matters (a lot!). When playing strategic games, humans can produce near-random behavior osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Félicie Dhellemmes @felicie-dhellemmes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Proud to present our latest work "Tracking human foragers and their prey reveals adaptive predator-prey dynamics", now hosted on BioRxiv! 🧵 doi.org/10.64898/202... @ralfkurvers.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social @alexschakowski.bsky.social @dominikdeffner.bsky.social
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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
How did we humans become what we are? Why did we diverge from other primates and develop our culture? What role does copying (imitation) play in that process, and how do we compare to great apes today? My interview with @ctennie.bsky.social explores these questions and more. Please check it out!
buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com
Humans from A to B
My interview with Dr. Claudio Tennie on how humans and great apes culturally diverged
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Dominik Deffner @dominikdeffner.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Now published in @natcomms.nature.com! Using a 3D immersive-reality group experiment, we show how people integrate dynamically changing personal and social cues in realistic environments, resulting in either collective intelligence or maladaptive behavior! Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Peeter Tinits @peetertinits.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Join the DigiTS team in Tartu! PhD position in machine learning, LLMs & NLP annotation. A great team pushing the #digitalhumanities #computationalhumanities agenda in a thoughtful way. A wonderful place to live and work! Estonia is pleasant, organized, easy to join! digits.ut.ee/join-the-team/
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Brunel Psychology @brunelpsy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Latest "ask a psychologist" podcast is out on the @Bruneluni psychology YouTube 📢 Today's star is Byron Creese whose research focuses on neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia 🧠
youtu.be
Alzheimer's Psychosis Explained: Hallucinations, Delusions, & Diagnosis | Ask a Psychologist
YouTube video by Psychology @ Brunel
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Kunal Jha @kjha02.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Can self-interested, self-improving, self-replicating agents learn to cooperate? Our new paper, Tapes Together Strong, shows they can: when social behavior, computation, and reproduction share one energy budget, cooperation evolves from scratch. arxiv.org/abs/2609.10817 🧵
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Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is what I've been saying for years. That's also why I'm no more than lukewarm towards multiverse analyses on experimental data. If you're going to spend all that computational power, why not do it a priori so you can design the best experiment under well-articulated assumptions?
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Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
ACE Research Grant Alert 🚨! CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support early career research projects in cultural evolution. The award is open to applicants worldwide, with an application deadline of October 9th 2026, 9:00 AM AoE. Applications: forms.gle/dsLdKQuNBH4W...
forms.gle
ACE Early Career Research Grants
CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support research projects in cultural evolution. To learn more about the Advancing Cultural Evolution (ACE) initiative, see here. Deadline: Appli...
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“Life history theory is often invoked to make universal predictions about phenotypic evolution. Eg it’s conventional wisdom that organisms should evolve later first reproduction if they have longer lifespans. We clarify that LHT does not provide such universal predictions about phenotypic diversity”
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marcelkeller.bsky.social @marcelkeller.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Our paper on the second plague pandemic is now finally published: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We present 11 new Y. pestis genomes from around Europe and introduce a new approach to refine the dating of ancient genomes that helped us to contextualize 75 plague genomes of the Second Pandemic.
Schematic workflow showing the Phylogenetically Informed Radiocarbon Modeling
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Seconded. In my experience, Royal Society Publishing is a rare publisher which is genuinely committed to publishing rigorous science. If you want to get involved in the editorial process, I highly recommend them too
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Greg Egan @gregegansf.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
While the Fields Medal celebrates the under-40s, the mathematician Joan Birman has, at the age of 99, solved a major open problem in representations of the Braid groups, a topic she has worked on for more than 60 years.
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Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🚨New preprint with Fei Dai, @hanqizhou.bsky.social and @alisongopnik.bsky.social We extend empowerment (control over external states) by turning it inward. *Representational empowerment* asks which representations a learner should acquire and curate to solve future problems arxiv.org/abs/2609.02322
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Alexey Koshevoy @alexeykoshevoy.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Are you interested in lexical competition, agent-based modelling, strong inference and Ukrainian? Then this paper, just published in @pnasnexus.org, is for you. With @oliviermorin.bsky.social and @sobchuk.bsky.social, we asked a simple question: why do some words become more common than others?
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Mason Youngblood @masonyoungblood.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
New tutorial preprint about simulation-based inference! Shows how to fit a cultural evo model to baby name data using approx Bayesian computation, random forests, and deep learning. Wrote for @eslr.bsky.social but wanted to share with others in @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social! :) osf.io/preprints/so...
osf.io
OSF
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Mason Youngblood @masonyoungblood.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Our new preprint explores how increasing interaction between humans and artificial agents and is reshaping creativity, from the perspective of cultural evolution! @katieeeeeeeeeee.bsky.social @manuelangladatort.bsky.social @camrobjones.bsky.social @gemschedel.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2609.02620
arxiv.org
Collective creativity in hybrid societies
Generative AI is changing how cultural artifacts are created and circulated, and with it our understanding of creativity itself. Researchers disagree about whether these tools enrich or impoverish cul...
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Martin Haspelmath @haspelmath.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
100 years of the "morph(eme)" – Bloomfield's foundational article came out in September 1926. dlc.hypotheses.org/4485
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Kayson Fakhar @kayson.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
🚨 8 months after, this paper found its home at Science Advances. We came up with a generative brain network model based on game theory and found that the human brain is suboptimal both in terms of wiring cost and communication efficiency. Here's why: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Matt Henderson @matthen.com · 01/09/2026
Here I draw a circle by hand. In a universe where it is the perfect circle- what does a sine wave look like? What is its value of pi?
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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 29/08/2026
I did not know this: eBay ran field experiments turning off paid search ads on google and there was zero measurable effect on sales. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3...
This begs the question: why do well-known companies spend large amounts of money on what seems to be a rather ineffective marketing channel?
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Gaia Molinaro @gaiamolinaro.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Why do some goals spread across people and generations, while others emerge only transiently? We argue that human goals are both drivers and products of cultural evolution: our individual pursuits are shaped by our cultural environments, and the goals we pursue in turn reshape those environments.
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James Winters @replicatedtypo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Hahaha
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Claudio Tennie @ctennie.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
A 2025 Science paper reported that bonobos combine calls to create new meanings. We analyzed its stats and then reanalysed the data. --> The claim did not hold up. Our paper (open access): doi.org/10.7717/peer... With @johanlind.bsky.social @annajonand.bsky.social
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Sophie Huiberts @sophie.huiberts.me · 18/08/2026
Spotted some #MathOfMario @clontz.org
arxiv.org
You Can't Solve These Super Mario Bros. Levels: Undecidable Mario Games
We prove RE-completeness (and thus undecidability) of several 2D games in the Super Mario Bros. platform video game series: the New Super Mario Bros. series (original, Wii, U, and 2), and both Super M...
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Levin Brinkmann @levinbrinkmann.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
We worry about homogenisation, but can AI also expand human culture? In a multi-generational experiment we demonstrate AI-induced cultural shifts. Machines lastingly shift human behavior, beyond their presence, just as AlphaGo did to Go. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Propagation and preservation of AI-discovered problem-solving strategies in human culture - Nature Communications
AI can uncover problem-solving strategies beyond human discovery. Here, the authors show that AI-discovered strategies propagate and persist in human populations, producing cultural shifts when non-tr...
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Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
@arthurpr4t.bsky.social has a new preprint with important results on a famous psychophysical law (Weber's law). It isn't, in fact, a law, because it can be broken. A more fundamental principle (efficient coding) shows when and why Weber's law holds true. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Efficient coding makes and breaks Weber's law
Weber's law is a rare quantitative regularity in psychology, yet its origins remain debated. Here we provide causal evidence that it arises from the more fundamental principle of efficient coding. Thi...
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Alexandre "Blublu" Bluet @blubludoesscience.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
New preprint! We investigate the role of language in the transmission of mental models in cultural evolution. Using a transmission chain design with over 2000 participants, we show that only language allows for the transmission and refinement of mental models. osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Jan Pfänder @janpfa.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Why do people trust physicists and biologists more than economists or sociologists? In a new paper out in Public Understanding of Science, @hugoreasoning.bsky.social and I argue that it has to do with perceived precision and consensus. doi.org/10.1177/0963...
doi.org
Sciences perceived as precise and consensual are more trusted - Jan Pfänder, Hugo Mercier, 2026
Research focused on the United States shows that people’s trust in science varies considerably between disciplines. Existing explanations of these trust gaps st...
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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
For the past six months @mariaa.bsky.social and I have been working on creating an improved research experience on atproto. It's now live! Check out: lea.ac
leaflet.pub
Lea: research-oriented social media
Introducing a beta-version of our new research-focused social media platform
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Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Proud of the whole team, esp of @alexschakowski.bsky.social for putting together this review: Toward a psychology of real-life decision-making. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @mpib-berlin.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social
sciencedirect.com
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James Winters @replicatedtypo.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
My eclipse shades didn't arrive from Amazon, but they did supply the necessary equipment for my wife's bespoke Amazon pinhole camera
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Claudio Tennie @ctennie.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Evidence that the use of tools to forage for oysters was an established cultural trait among chimpanzees in 17th century Sierra Leone - Primates
We discuss a historical report of chimpanzees Pan troglodytes using stone tools to forage for large oysters Crassostrea tulipa at the Sierra Leone River estuary in 1678, a behaviour that was also note...
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Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
New paper w/ @verwirrt.bsky.social and @lottybrand.bsky.social. We use agent-based modeling w/ NK landscapes to help theorize about role of analogies in language/cultural evolution, and how they solve problems associated with the transmission of complex information. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Analogies evolve by increasing transmission fidelity in the communication of complex information | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core
Analogies evolve by increasing transmission fidelity in the communication of complex information - Volume 8
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Nora Harhen @noraharhen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
How do we make good decisions with little experience? Adults can rely on memories of past choices. In our new study in @pnas.org we show kids & teens do something similar–but what they remember turns out to be quite different! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Developmental changes in memory structure and precision alter the use of retrieved episodes during decisions for reward | PNAS
Most widely studied option evaluation strategies rely on knowledge accumulated across repeated experiences. But how should options be evaluated in ...
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Benjamin Pitt @benjaminpitt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
New paper finally out in @NatureComms with E. Leib, D. O’Shaughnessy, C. Gallardo, @sferrigno.bsky.social, and @spiantado.bsky.social. 📝Children across cultures discover the latent algorithms that structure what they see, even without instruction, feedback, or formal schooling.🧵 tinyurl.com/4a238m2d
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Aly Lidayan @aliday.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
New paper! Setting goals is so useful in complex settings because it can reduce the environment's complexity to only the goal-relevant features. But for humans, reframing comes at a cost. Could this explain why we're so bad at abandoning goals that are no longer worthwhile? 🧵
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Dr Huw Groucutt @huwgroucutt.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Great to see our new paper out; evidence for Neanderthals in Arabia! Time to stop imagining our hominin cousins as only being found in cold northern forests! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Neanderthals in the desert? Population history best explains Middle Palaeolithic technological heterogeneity in Arabia
Northeast Africa and Southwest Asia present a rich record of hominin occupations between ca. 100 and 50 thousand years ago (ka) at a critical biogeogr…
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Alejandro Pérez Velilla @apvelilla.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Out now in PNAS. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Thank you to all peers and colleagues who provided invaluable feedback during the process!
pnas.org
A demographic theory of similarity-biased social learning | PNAS
We develop a demographic theory of similarity-biased social learning that formalizes our understanding of when and why individuals should preferent...
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Bret Beheim @babeheim.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
@peetertinits.bsky.social crushed it today with the Price-equation based decomposition plots of linguistic change in early modern Europe. #dh2026
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Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦 @sobchuk.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Reminder: two weeks are left to apply for the PhD and postdoc positions in my lab. See more info here www.aesthetics.mpg.de/en/career/jo...
Postdoc and PhD positions at MPIAE in Frankfurt
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Artjoms Šeļa @artjomshl.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Very lucky and grateful to present this paper in Daejeon at #DH2026 with @tonyamart.bsky.social — if you’re wondering what the queen of pop herself is doing on the slide, we also have posterior predictions over her song lyrics and her poetry book!
Two density distributions showing how LDR songs and poetry distribute over predictions (how song like or poetry like they are). Song has a much wider span that her poetry that is very much like poetry
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Qiankun Zhong @qkzhong.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I summarised my path in (social) science as a love story for cultural evolution: selfmademodeler.wordpress.com/2026/07/28/c...
selfmademodeler.wordpress.com
Cultural Evolution, a Love Story
I recently read this quote from Albert Camus. “A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those great and simple images in whose presence his heart first …
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Piers Kelly @pierskelly.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
​New article!: The Origins and Evolution of Writing www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... 🧵1/
annualreviews.org
The Origins and Evolution of Writing
For centuries, scholars have debated the etiology and evolution of writing. The most persistent concerns relate to the relationship between writing and social organization, linguistic structure, and c...
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NetScience @netscience.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Cultural Evolution of Perfumes since 1900 arxiv.org/abs/2607.19520
arxiv.org
Cultural Evolution of Perfumes since 1900
Perfumes are cultural artifacts and works of sensory art, composed from a finite, recombinable palette of notes that together evoke a distinctive scent impression. Here, we assemble the largest perfum...
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Damián Blasi @damianblasi.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
How many languages have existed over the Holocene—and what does that reveal about the design space of languages and cultures? Now out in @science.org www.science.org/eprint/QDZNY....
science.org
The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene
Characterizing the factors that have shaped linguistic diversity is fundamental for understanding human history, culture, and cognition. In this study, we combined statistical and social computational...
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James Winters @replicatedtypo.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
The Sheep Detectives is film of the year
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
“this epistemic exclusion (in)visibly shapes the academic community, determining whose voices are heard and what kind of knowledge is shared and taken seriously” academic.oup.com/isp/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Forum: The Passports They Carry: Global South Scholars and the Global Academic Mobility Divide
Abstract. Passport inequality is more than a simple logistical inconvenience; it is a fundamental injustice that undermines the ideals of fairness and equa
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Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦 @sobchuk.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Cool new paper about correcting the biases in cultural data using methods from ecology. royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Correcting collection bias in comparative studies of diversity
Abstract. Comparative analyses of diversity in human populations often rely on historical, archival and observational data, which are systematically shaped
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Centre for Culture and Evolution @brunelcce.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
1/ New Brunel CCE commentary in Behavioral and Brain Sciences by @replicatedtypo.bsky.social and @matcharbonneau.bsky.social 🧠🌍✨ “Subjective selection needs socially transmitted goals and culturally evolving problems”
doi.org
Subjective selection needs socially transmitted goals and culturally evolving problems | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Subjective selection needs socially transmitted goals and culturally evolving problems - Volume 49
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