Rebecca Sear
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rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear
@rebeccasear.bsky.social
11K followers 3.7K following 2.7K posts

Director of the Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London @brunelcce.bsky.social. President of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association @ehbea.bsky.social

https://www.rebeccasear.org/

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Rebecca Sear, is a British anthropologist and academic, who specialises in evolutionary anthropology, demography and human behavioural ecology. Since 2024, she has been director of the Centre for Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London. She previously taught at the London School of Economics, Durham University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. .. more

Psychology 45%
Sociology 15%
Posts Replies Media Videos

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 18h
"Reproductive factors, including gravidity, parity, abortion, age at first pregnancy, breastfeeding duration, and menopausal age, were significant determinants of mortality risk in older Chinese women." academic.oup.com/biomedgeront...
Reproductive Factors and Risk of Mortality in Older Women: A 16-year Follow-up of Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study
AbstractBackground. China’s dramatic decline in fertility rates due to family planning policies and socioeconomic changes have significant impacts on women
academic.oup.com

Reposted by Ruth Mace, Rebecca Sear, Hansraj Gautam

euantheyoung.bsky.social
Euan Angus Young @euantheyoung.bsky.social · 21h
1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 23h
Hard to think of a better epitaph for a scientist than this: “She inspired us to see the world with both rigor and heart”

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
In Memoriam Jane B. Lancaster (1935–2025), a Pioneer in Anthropology
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 23h
Also like the focus on understanding the history of a discipline here 👇
gillianrbrown1.bsky.social Prof. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · 5d
📢 Here is my commentary about the pitfalls of taking an impoverished evolutionary approach to culture, which include 'the limitations of a unidirectional model of evolution' and 'the neglect of niche construction theory'. #ehbea #evolution #psychscisky 🧪

🧵 1/2

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The pitfalls of an impoverished approach to culture: Commentary on Baumard and André
www.sciencedirect.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Educational Expansion Regimes and Wealth Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: “findings highlight the importance of categorizing educational expansion as distinct regimes by revealing how seemingly similar educational expansions have vastly different associations with wealth inequality”
<em>Population and Development Review</em> | Population Council Journal | Wiley Online Library
Between 1990 and 2019, primary school enrollment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) surged from 62 million to 187 million students. Despite this growth, SSA remains one of the most unequal continents, chall...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Sadly, very few people even making this point

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Benenson

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear, David W. Lawson

stairwaytokevin.bsky.social
Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 1d
Evolutionary psychology makes a big to-do about their finding that sexual selection favors a "feminine body type" that "signals fertility/reproductive potential", including some rather... silly research. Turns out, those traits don't seem to signal reproductive success. Oops! doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 1d
‘When Adam Smith wrote “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner but from their regard to their own interest,” he omitted any discussion of the unpaid work of his mother (& later his sister) that went into cooking his dinner.’ on.ft.com/4olyOut
What we still get wrong about women’s role in global economics
From the Enlightenment to today’s ‘tradwives’, three books look at the tension between production and reproduction
on.ft.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Have definitely come across this reviewer: “This manuscript was not worth my time so I did not read it and recommend rejection.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Lipstick on a pig’: how to fight back against a peer-review bully
Scientific societies, journals, editors and researchers are pushing back against mean-spirited peer reviews.
www.nature.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
"mortality was higher among children under age 5 whose parents lost siblings under age 5. Intergenerational persistence was strongest from mothers to children and particularly for mothers who lost siblings as infants in relation to mortality among their own infants" academic.oup.com/ereh/advance...
Inequality in Child Mortality Persists Between Generations in the Netherlands, 1835–1919
Abstract. In historical the Netherlands, child mortality was distributed unequally between families and this inequality persisted across generations. Using
academic.oup.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d
Embarrassingly, evolutionary biology is dragged into the debate to justify beliefs about women about their incompetencies. “Scientific sexism” seems to be having a moment alongside scientific racism
And that seemed to me to correspond very closely to the changes that we would describe as wokeness. Her theory is that this originated in the midst of prehistory, that men were organized to have warrior bands, which meant they needed to have hierarchical structures. They needed to know how to take orders and give orders, and not take it personally when their leader made a choice that they didn't agree with. And that they needed to be able to engage in conflict, to fight. And then when that fight was over, you needed to be able to make peace. And that women, being more oriented towards child rearing, were more likely to have protracted conflict with their rivals within the tribe, and less likely to reconcile at the end.

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d
On the decision of the New York Times to air a podcast debating “did women ruin the workplace?”:

“Taking the sort of misogynistic nonsense that you see on Fox News and repackaging it as a pseudointellectual debate in a prestigious publication imbues these arguments with a dangerous validity”
Everybody panic – the workplace has become too ‘feminized’! | Arwa Mahdawi
This week, Mexico’s president was groped in public. But a New York Times podcast is fretting about excessive wokeness
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d
“What is now needed is to place eugenics within a new framework, and see it as interconnected with other paradigms within global racism, social and health inequities. We must put an end to the eugenic dehumanisation of many people of colour, of those individuals with learning disabilities and so on”
confronteugenics.bsky.social Confront-Eugenics @confronteugenics.bsky.social · 7d
“Eugenics is an integral aspect of our global scientific and political culture:” interview with Marius Turda “Eugenics is an integral aspect of our global scientific and political culture:” An interview with Marius Turda published in @scielo.org www.scielo.br/j/hcsm/a/k8j...
“Eugenics is an integral aspect of our global scientific and political culture:” interview with Marius Turda
Abstract Despite public condemnation after the defeat of Nazism, eugenic ideas continue to...
www.scielo.br

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d
Study finds “polarization surrounding universities’ societal roles” but its methodology defines those societal roles as not part of universities “core mission”. This reinforces the damaging narrative that DEI, for example, is in opposition to doing good research, not an integral part of that mission
The role of universities in society
Americans agree universities have a broader role beyond education and research but do not fully agree on what that role is.
www.science.org

Reposted by Rebecca Sear, Jonathan Birch

duhe.bsky.social
Ehud @duhe.bsky.social · 3d
Watson and Crick elucidated the structure of DNA. Stop saying that they discovered DNA! This was done by another guy you probably haven't heard of! And therein lies a story. academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
Before Watson and Crick in 1953 Came Friedrich Miescher in 1869
Abstract. The story of genetics typically omits the original discovery of the molecular nature of DNA: Friedrich Miescher's 1869 discovery of the substance
academic.oup.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear, Jussi T. Eronen

drbenomycin.bsky.social
Ben Dicks⌬n @drbenomycin.bsky.social · 3d
"His signal achievements, and the way he accomplished them, inflated his belief not only in his genius but also in how to succeed"

This is (IMO) a prevalent and harmful feature of the way academia and funding systems work.

www.statnews.com/2025/11/07/j...
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 3d
“the study of how and why people vote can offer more than electoral post-mortems that explain why candidates won or lost. The study of political identity can open a window into understanding identity more broadly, and its dynamism, and offer lessons for how society operates and where it is headed”
The Increasingly Complex Science of Political Identity
Opinion | Understanding why people vote the way they do has emerged as a cutting-edge scientific question requiring new tools.
undark.org

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 3d
Women are not ruining the workplace because women are not so very different from men:

“In personality and evolutionary psychology, the consensus is clear: Men and women evolved under shared pressures for cooperation, mutual dependency and parental investment, not perpetual conflict or exploitation”
The Ideology versus the Science of Evolved Sex Differences - Replicability-Index
1. Introduction: Competing Stories About Gender Debates about sex differences often swing between extremes. One narrative, familiar from strands of radical feminism, portrays masculinity as dangerous—...
replicationindex.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

jbenning.bsky.social
John Benning @jbenning.bsky.social · 3d
We're excited to share the final version of our paper, where we demonstrate how confounding remains a thorny problem for claims about causal genetic influences on human behavioral and socioeconomic outcomes. (w/ @jedidiahcarlson.com @oliviarxiv.bsky.social Ruth Shaw @arbelharpak.bsky.social) 🧵👇

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 3d
Interesting discussion of why fertility rates for men and women may differ here: "adjusting for demographic and socio-economic factors significantly reduces the fertility differential. Residual differences may stem from measurement errors, selection biases, or unmeasured variables"
Cohort fertility differences between men and women in a developed population: Evidence from Spain
Despite its significance, men’s fertility has been largely overlooked in demographic research. This study seeks to address this gap by conducting a systematic comparative analysis of men’s and wome...
www.tandfonline.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 4d
"Heckenberger relied on the Kuikuro to guide him to the ancient earthworks—which they already knew about—and help him dig and map them. “We built a relationship of trust,” he recalls. “They taught me about their culture, and I taught them how to do archaeology.”" www.science.org/content/arti...
To unearth their past, Amazonian people turn to ‘a language white men understand’
A model partnership between archaeologists and the Kuikuro people has helped rewrite the history of early Amazonian societies
www.science.org

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Joanna Bryson, James Q. Wilson , and 12 more

donmoyn.bsky.social
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d
The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond

Reposted by Mel Bartley

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 4d
“Financial restrictions oblige funders to reject vast numbers of sound proposals. Why not retain them for other funders to consider?”

www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/comm...
A common grant application database would cut the waste of resubmission
Financial restrictions oblige funders to reject vast numbers of sound proposals. Why not retain them for other funders to consider, asks Mikhail Spivakov
www.timeshighereducation.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 4d
“A new initiative to encourage collaboration between leading African researchers and European Research Council grantees opens opportunities for researchers supported by the African Academy of Sciences to temporarily join teams led by ERC grantees in Europe”
New partnership between African Academy of Sciences and the European Research Council to boost scientific collaboration
A new initiative to encourage collaboration between leading African researchers and European Research Council (ERC) grantees was signed by the European Commission and the African Academy of Sciences (...
erc.europa.eu

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear

culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 4d
Don't hesitate, apply for our Advancing Cultural Evolution Teaching Innovation awards -

The deadline is the 17th of November, so you've got one more week to get your application in!

culturalevolutionsociety.org/grants-and-a...
Grants and Awards - Cultural Evolution Society
culturalevolutionsociety.org

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

brunelpsy.bsky.social
Brunel Psychology @brunelpsy.bsky.social · 4d
🧠👀 Dr Rachel Bennetts, our expert in face processing at Brunel psychology, shared her thoughts in @theguardian.com on a fascinating new study exploring what makes some people exceptional at recognising faces 😶‍🌫️

🔗 👇
AI study gives insights into why super-recognisers excel at identifying faces
Research uses eye-tracking data to examine some people’s extraordinary recognition ability
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 4d
“At a time when state leaders are promoting distrust in science and attacks on the social sciences are multiplying….

We firmly believe that social sciences and academic freedom are intrinsic to democracy and must be protected and promoted”

www.isa-sociology.org/en/about-isa...
A Time for Sociology
A Time for Sociology
www.isa-sociology.org

Reposted by Michael A. Clemens, Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear , and 5 more

ericbschneider.bsky.social
Eric Schneider @ericbschneider.bsky.social · 5d
Curious about using census microdata in your research? 📊

Join us for a webinar on IPUMS International, the world’s leading repository of harmonized census data.

🗓️ 12 Nov 2025 | 🕒 15:15–16:30 UK | 💻 Zoom
Register: forms.gle/oqTDNU4Zpn2s...

Hosted by the LSE Historical Economic Demography Group.
Register for IPUMs International Online Session
Please use this form to register for the IPUMs International Session hosted by the Historical Economic Demography Group at LSE. The session will be on Zoom from 15:15-16:30 UK Time on 12 November 202...
forms.gle

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

alexmesoudi.com
Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 5d
Really enjoyed this podcast with @sheinalew.bsky.social and @dorsaamir.bsky.social on evolution and childhood. Super-smart people talking about a super-interesting topic

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...
Varieties of childhood
Podcast Episode · Many Minds · 10/07/2025 · 1h 29m
podcasts.apple.com