Don Ross

@don-rosseconomist.bsky.social

140 followers 62 following 49 posts

Experimental economist, economic methodologist

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Economics 29%

Neuroscience 13%

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Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · 8d

... we need much more attention to the problem of how to control the increased capacity that malicious or ethically oblivious human interests will have to manipulate and deceive members of other species.

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · 8d

Share This Article insideclimatenews.org/news/2910202...

Yes, establishment of inter-species bandwidth should galvanise efforts to broaden legal protections. However, ... [see next post]

AI Is Decoding Whales’ Communications. Could That Be a Turning Point in the Push for Their Rights? - Inside Climate News

The Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) is using artificial intelligence to help understand sperm whale communications. Lawyers think the discoveries could galvanize the world to recognize whales’ ...

insideclimatenews.org

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · 28d

I strongly recommend the book below. Inspired writing about a vision for practical ecology, with lots of good science woven in.

www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rob-d...

The Call of the Honeyguide

How rethinking our relationships with other species can help us reimagine the future of humankind In the woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa, sometime deep ...

www.hachettebookgroup.com

Reposted by David Spurrett

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Sep 30

The latest Ross & Stirling on Conditional Game Theory 2.0:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mindshaping, conditional games, and the Harsanyi Doctrine

Much work in game theory concerns mechanisms by which players can infer information about the utilities and beliefs of other players based on actions within games and pre-play signals. When game th...

www.tandfonline.com

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Sep 25

A nice summary by GSU journalists on the new Harrison, Ross, & Swarthout paper in Journal of Political Economy:

news.gsu.edu/2025/09/24/n...

New Research Reveals Women Outperform Men on Intelligence, Competitiveness and Literacy - Georgia State University News - Faculty/Research, Press Releases, Robinson College of Business -

Gender, Confidence and the Mismeasure of Intelligence, Competitiveness and Literacy is groundbreaking new research from economists at the Center of Economic Analysis of Risk at Georgia State’s Robinso...

news.gsu.edu

Reposted by David Spurrett

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Sep 22

Calling on South Africans to speak up to stop something very bad from happening: www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2...

DON ROSS AND ROSS HARVEY: An atrocity is planned in Madikwe

The overpopulation myth seems to be a useful pretext on which to justify the hunting and culling tender

www.businesslive.co.za

Reposted by Don Ross, Thomas Crofts

The Onion @theonion.com · Feb 5

FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States

WASHINGTON—Putting the nation on alert against what it has described as a “highly credible terrorist threat,” the FBI announced today that it has uncovered a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back an...

theonion.com

Reposted by Harry Garretsen, Jacques Teller, Don Ross , and 8 more Harry Garretsen, Jacques Teller, Don Ross, Bas Jacobs, Peter Walkenhorst, Jennie C. Stephens, David W. Blight, Benjamin Jones, William R. Wood, Eric Verhoogen, Uwe M. Martens

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · Feb 5

Of course it’s a coup. Miss the obvious, lose your republic.
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

Of course it’s a coup

Miss the obvious, lose your republic

open.substack.com

Reposted by Don Ross

Clare Pollard @poetclare.bsky.social · Jun 22

Fair play to Sally Rooney for this, brave and to the point www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Israel kills innocent Palestinians. Activists spray-paint a plane. Guess which the UK government calls terrorism | Sally Rooney

If Palestine Action becomes a proscribed group, writing these words of support could become a serious offence. It’s vital we fight this alarming attack on free speech, says writer Sally Rooney

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by David M. Schultz, David Dunning, Don Ross , and 12 more David M. Schultz, David Dunning, Don Ross, Jānis Stirna, Peter Campbell, Kris Inwood, Andrew L. Rypel, Elizabeth Stevenson, Bhuva Narayan, Nancy K. Baym, Jo Littler, Jonathan Marks, Noel D. Johnson, Melanie Williams, Ailsa Cox

Rachael King @rachaelking70.bsky.social · May 20

This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · May 11

Here's a new paper that applies Walter Veit's framework for studying non-human animal (or for that matter, human) consciousness to a case study. The case study is of course (given that it's me) elephants.
doi.org/10.1177/1059...

Pathological complexity and African elephant consciousness - Don Ross, 2025

Veit (2023) provides a framework for modelling and empirically investigating varieties of consciousness as a Darwinian phenomenon, based on abduction from life ...

doi.org

Reposted by Don Ross, Mathias Girel

Justin Weinberg @dailynous.com · Apr 25

"The topic... appears entirely unrelated to the scope of Synthese." A little journal weirdness...

A Mysterious Publication - Daily Nous

An article published recently in Synthese caught the eye of a few Daily Nous readers. Remember the game, "which one of these is not like the others?" Give it try on this selection of the latest articl...

dailynous.com

Reposted by Don Ross

Cailin O’Connor @cailinmeister.bsky.social · Apr 14

Harvard has a backbone after all!! Alan Garber sent a letter to the Harvard community about their resistance to Trump. It comes a few weeks after a (cowardly) one about working with the federal govt to "fight anti-semitism on campus". New plan is to protect academic freedom

Quote from Garber letter about how the anti-semitism thing is just a smoke screen to control speech on campus

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Apr 9

There is some research on folk economics. Yes, most of it precisely these bad analogies, plus scaling errors.

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Apr 4

Here are three links to a 30-minute Pagecast interview on themes from The Gambling Animal:
Spotify – open.spotify.com/show/1MKyRj7...
Apple Podcast – podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/p...
YouTube - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-xB...

PAGECAST

Podcast · PAGECAST · Join Pagecast, South Africa's premier literary podcast, every Monday morning for insider interviews with recently published authors and their latest books. Explore the creative pr...

open.spotify.com

Reposted by Don Ross

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Apr 3

Bonobos may combine words in ways previously thought unique to humans

Phrases used to smooth over tense social situations have meanings beyond the sum of their parts, study suggests Bonobos use a combination of calls to encourage peace with their partner during mating rituals, research suggests. The discovery is part of a study that suggests our close evolutionary cousins can string together vocalisations to produce phrases with meanings that go beyond the sum of their parts – something often considered unique to human language. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Don Ross, Liam Delaney, Jay Shambaugh , and 2 more Don Ross, Liam Delaney, Jay Shambaugh, Simon Galle, Magda Teter

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · Apr 3

Carney: The system of global trade anchored on the United States.. is over. Our old relationship of steadily deepening integration with the United States is over. The 80 year period when the United States embraced the mantle of economic leadership… is over.

Reposted by Don Ross, Berit Lange, Sharon S. Dawes

Liz Borkowski @lizborkowski.bsky.social · Mar 29

NIH has rescinded its scientific integrity policy. Hard to see this as anything other than clearing the way for shoddy research on things like vaccines. Regardless of the rationale, it's bad news for public health.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

NOT-OD-25-080: Rescission of the Final Scientific Integrity Policy of the National Institutes of Health

NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Rescission of the Final Scientific Integrity Policy of the National Institutes of Health NOT-OD-25-080. OD

grants.nih.gov

Reposted by Don Ross, Cheryl Peters, Johann Packendorff , and 1 more Don Ross, Cheryl Peters, Johann Packendorff, Talia Schaffer

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Mar 29

This piece from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social starts with a bang and just gets better and better. Gift link.

Opinion | The Tech Fantasy That Powers A.I. Is Running on Fumes (Gift Article)

A.I. is just what we need in the post-fact era: less research and more predicting what we want to hear.

www.nytimes.com

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Mar 13

I missed the news, 2 weeks ago, that Ed Leamer died. Eish. Now my favourite living economist is evidently ... somebody else.

newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/in-m...

In memoriam: Edward Leamer, 80, professor and director of UCLA Anderson Forecast

Leamer’s contributions to economic research spanned more than five decades and multiple areas. “It is impossible to overstate his impact,” UCLA Anderson Dean Antonio Bernardo said.

newsroom.ucla.edu

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Feb 20

Since they've never shown respect for any normative limits at all, there indeed seems little basis for pouring cold water on even the most extravagant fears.

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Feb 20

Indeed, the US is currently the leading menace to liberalism and peaceful international order. Liberal countries will need to urgently build closer cooperation with non-liberal but less dangerous countries with strong militaries, specifically China and Turkey.

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Feb 10

Yes, it's a discouragingly ridiculous comment.

Reposted by Don Ross

Uljana Feest @ufeest.bsky.social · Feb 7

Sad to hear that that the University of New South Wales has decided not to renew the honorary, unpaid associate professor position of Michael Mathews, who has been producing the HPS&ST Newsletter for many years. Here's the latest installment of this great resource:
www.hpsst.com/uploads/6/2/...

www.hpsst.com

Reposted by Don Ross, Mathias Frisch

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · Feb 7

The US government has been turned over to a group of extraordinarily ignorant people, and they are working to destroy science in this country. Cutting over half the NSF budget would save < 0.1% of the federal budget, but do incalculable harm. Simply heartbreaking.

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation

“This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China.”…

arstechnica.com

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Feb 6

Yes, Marco, promoting focus on DEI and climate change is indeed what we're doing. Proudly. The tone of the summit will be improved by your absence.

Reposted by Don Ross

David R|3 @davidreiss.bsky.social · Feb 3

Btw: if you’re interested in quality journalism from (South) Africa, @thecontinent.org and @dailymaverick.co.za are both on Bluesky! Go follow them and read their content - both are excellent!

Reposted by Don Ross

Profile Books @profilebooks.bsky.social · Feb 3

Check out this fascinating @newscientist.com review for economists Glen Harrison and @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social's revolutionary insight into behavioural and evolutionary science, #TheGamblingAnimal.

How humans evolved to think about risk may cost Earth dearly

A provocative new book delves into the way humans – and elephants – evolved to manage risk. We might do better to think more like elephants

www.newscientist.com

Don Ross @don-rosseconomist.bsky.social · Feb 3

Probably the latter. His belief in Marx's theory of history appears - based on private scribbling in the books in his library - to have been sincere.

Reposted by Don Ross

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · Feb 1

I don't get the sense that U.S. journalists have a good sense of who to talk to when basic government functions are being ripped out. Gutting the administrative state is not a standard beat. A short thread with some starter suggestions for who to read/talk to. Please - people add more in replies!

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