Abbey Page
banner
abbeyepage.bsky.social
Abbey Page
@abbeyepage.bsky.social
Lecturer CCE Brunel in working on all things on reproduction, childrearing, early childhood and social support. Thinks in evolutionary and other frameworks. Secretary of EHBEA. 🩷💜💙🩵
Pinned
📣 New paper by myself @djsmith90.bsky.social and colleagues published today in @royalsociety.org Proc B 📣

Grandmothers are often seen as key carers, but this isn’t always the case.

We explore why in Agta forgers reflecting on the implications of demography for evolution of grandmothering 👵🌍
Reposted by Abbey Page
Dusted off the ol' blog after years of heavy disuse because I'm h*ckin' excited to tell y'all about some of the exciting things we're trying in our stats/methods/skills curriculum at Brunel!

Read! Share! Tell us what you think!
#psychscisky 🧪 #philsci #methodology #teaching
Don’t Send A Magician To Do A Scientist’s Job: A New Blog Series About Our Experiments In Teaching Science to Young Scientists — Will Gervais
We’re doing some exciting and innovative things with our methods, stats, and skills curriculum and we want to tell y’all about it! Debuting our new bespoke 9-module statistics, methods, and skills cu...
willgervais.com
January 19, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
@willgervais.com wonderfully showcasing the work of CCE members @replicatedtypo.bsky.social @michealdebarra.bsky.social and @abbeyepage.bsky.social in re vamping the research methods at @brunelpsy.bsky.social 💙

We’re learning as we go but dead excited 📚☠️🤗

Follow for updates 🧪
January 19, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
📢 Talk announcement bringing together @brunelcce.bsky.social and CCN research centres! 📢

Dr Conrad Hackett (Pew Research Center) joins us on 📆29th Jan, 2-4pm to unpack the latest global religion survey and how it diverges from Pew’s influential 2015 projections 🌍📊

Open to all! 🔓
January 12, 2026 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
1/ 👩‍🎓 Big shout-out to Brunel PhD student Hannah Mays and supervisor @nelliferenczi.bsky.social from @brunelpsy.bsky.social for contributing written evidence on misogyny in the manosphere and online content to a major policy consultation
https://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/brunel-public-policy/news-and-events/news/Written-evidence/Misogyny-the-manosphere-and-online-content-–-Hannah-Mays-and-Nelli-Ferenczi
December 19, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
Had a really fun chat with James Hodgson at Humanism Now about my book Disbelief....check it out!

www.buzzsprout.com/2246305/epis...

Book here, bound to make a confusing Christmas gift for many children on your list! www.globepequot.com/978163388925...
57. Will Gervais on the Origins of Religion, Disbelief, and Morality - Humanism Now | Secular Ethics, Curiosity and Compassionate Change
“Humans didn’t evolve to believe in gods — we evolved to learn from culture, and sometimes culture points away from gods.”Dr Will M. Gervais, psychologist and author of Disbelief, joins Humanism Now t...
www.buzzsprout.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
1/ In a recent @britishacademy.bsky.social video @rebeccasear.bsky.social from @brunelpsy.bsky.social takes a clear-eyed look at the 21st‑century rise of eugenics - an ideology that should have been left behind, yet is now re‑emerging in a number of troubling ways ⚠️🧬 🧪

Watch the full talk here 🎥👇
The 21st Century Resurgence of Eugenics
YouTube video by The British Academy
www.youtube.com
December 15, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
My nursery bill is nearly double my mortgage...
Why aren't families having more babies?

This brand new paper argues that part of the reason is because childcare is so expensive.

"A 10% increase in the price of childcare leads to a 5.7% decrease in the birth rate"

abigaildow.com/assets/docs/...
December 12, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
EHBEA 2026 has extended the deadline till the 9th January

#holidaymircale
We have already received many wonderful abstracts, thank you all! 🌟
For those who need a little extra time, we have good news: the #EHBEA2026 deadline has been extended to 9 Jan. ✍️✨
Add the finishing touches, hit submit, and join an exciting, inspiring conference!
👉 www.ehbea2026.com
Overview | EHBEA2026
The upcoming conference of the European Human Behaviour & Evolution Association will take place in Leiden, The Netherlands, 14th-17th of April 2026. EHBEA conferences bring together researchers applyi...
www.ehbea2026.com
December 15, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
So the traditional explanation for fertility decline - that fertility declines once children become net consumers rather than producers - isn't quite right, though part of the explanation is likely increased costs of children over time

Paper here books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp...
books.openbookpublishers.com
December 13, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
@michealdebarra.bsky.social and @aiyanakoka.bsky.social discuss all about this research in this short video 📹

👏🎬
Understanding Illness & Treatment Through Supernatural Beliefs | A. Willard & M. De Barra, Brunel
YouTube video by Templeton Religion Trust
www.youtube.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
1/ 🧵 New PNAS paper by CCE’s @michealdebarra.bsky.social @aiyanakoka.bsky.social with Angel V Jiménez and Nachita Rosun🎉

📄 Why do people turn to religious or supernatural cures?
🧪🏺

#evolpsy #evolanth #evolutionarybehaviouralsciences #culturalevolution
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
December 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
Many congratulations to the newly-minted Dr Baafi @josephineabaafi.bsky.social 🎉🥳 who passed her PhD viva yesterday! A very positive experience thanks to examiners Monica Magadi and @joestrong.bsky.social, and Chair @1verofilippi.bsky.social 🙏
November 28, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
🧵 1/ Excited to share this work from CCEs Francisco Gómez Jiménez, whose research explores gender diversity across cultures 🌍

Francisco introduces the muxes of the Istmo Zapotec community in Oaxaca, Mexico - a remarkable example of longstanding, culturally grounded gender diversity 🏳️‍🌈
🎥👇
Testing Biological Evolutionary Patterns Amongst Muxes: A Chat with Dr. Francisco Gómez Jiménez
YouTube video by Gender Diversity Across Cultures
www.youtube.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
1/ 🎙️ New paper by Dr Aiyana Willard argues it’s time to retire HADD = “we’re hardwired to see agents EVERYWHERE” and replace it with something that *actually* fits the evidence 🪦➡️📚

@brunelpsy.bsky.social

🔗 Read it 👇
Belief as explanation: a motivation-based theory of agency and anthropomorphism in religious belief
Supernatural agent beliefs are ubiquitous across cultures, yet many theories aimed at explaining this fact have not held up to scrutiny. The most famous of these, the Hyperactive Agency Detection D...
www.tandfonline.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
Brunel's press release about our (@hggaddy.bsky.social @anthrolog.bsky.social) recent publication, showing that high levels of polygyny don't necessarily lock men out of the marriage market

www.brunel.ac.uk/news-and-eve...
Data questions myths about multiple wife marriages, men and violence
A new study analyzing 84 million census records reveals that polygyny does not increase the number of unmarried men. In many societies where polygyny is common, men are actually more likely to be marr...
www.brunel.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
The deadline has been extended - there is still time to get your abstracts in to join us in Morocco!
The submission deadline for #CESRabat has been extended to 30 November

@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
👉 A reminder that the deadline for submitting your abstract to the CES 2026 #CESRabat is the 16th of November.

🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
November 16, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
🚨 ABSTRACT SUBMISSION 🚨

#EHBEA2026 will be held in Leiden!

Do not forget to submit your abstract before December 15th in order to attend and share your research!

More in the official account:
@ehbea2026.bsky.social

👇👇👇
📢 Call for abstracts!
🚀 The time has come — abstract submission for #EHBEA2026 is officially OPEN since this week! 🎉
🗓 Submission Nov 1st – Dec 15th
📝 300 words
🧠 Important: Make an OpenReview account before submitting — it takes time!
👉 www.ehbea2026.com
Overview | EHBEA2026
www.ehbea2026.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
For a while (many years!) back, @eseb.bsky.social gave us €€€ to form a Special Topic Network. Formally, the network no longer exists, but informally for sure AND we can now pick the fruits of our labours! Here is one and the next post shows another... Thank you ESEB! 🙏
November 14, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
Come and do a PhD at Exeter with me and Chico Camargo (Computer Science) on human-genAI coevolution

"Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics"

www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr...

More details here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
www.exeter.ac.uk
November 14, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
Seems the NYT likes Leiden as much as we do 😉 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/t...
BTW did you know that EHBEA 2026 will take place right in the middle of the renowned Dutch flower season? 🌼🌼 If you consider staying for one extra night you can enjoy the annual parade (“bloemencorso”) on the 18th 😇
All the Canals and Charm of Amsterdam. None of the Crowds.
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Abbey Page
Only 2 days left to get your abstracts in!
👉 A reminder that the deadline for submitting your abstract to the CES 2026 #CESRabat is the 16th of November.

🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique - FGSES
aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
New Phil Trans B issue on the ‘Evolutionary functions of consciousness’

royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 15, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Abbey Page
1/ 🩸 New Research by former CCE Tristin Agtarap and CCE member Julieta Baker 📣👏

A new paper in *Sexuality Research & Social Policy* explores how menstrual product choices and menstrual-care practices shape empowerment, autonomy and connection to the body
Empowered Choices: Exploring the Interplay of Menstruation, Menstrual Products, and Well-being
link.springer.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:44 PM
The increasing rate at which @rebeccasear.bsky.social and others are posting this absolute shame and failing of peer review and the rip off publishing system should be a canary in the mine about a diffusion of racists and race science within mainstream science and as a result everyday thought 🚨
The influence of race science is spreading in the evolutionary behavioural sciences. This new paper means members of a race science network have now been published in Evolutionary Psychological Science, Evolutionary Behavioral Science, Evolutionary Psychology & Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiology
November 12, 2025 at 7:50 PM