Brendan Barrett
@bjjbarrett.bsky.social
dad / evolutionary (behavioral) ecologist
group leader at MPI-AB and STRI research associate
social learning, cultural evolution, extragenetic inheritance, dispersal.
field & stats & math.
cyclist & runner / doom metal aficionado.
he/him.
group leader at MPI-AB and STRI research associate
social learning, cultural evolution, extragenetic inheritance, dispersal.
field & stats & math.
cyclist & runner / doom metal aficionado.
he/him.
Pinned
Brendan Barrett
@bjjbarrett.bsky.social
· Aug 20
Between-group competitive advantage offsets foraging costs for bigger groups in harsher seasons
Larger animal groups are widely understood to require more space and travel farther to mitigate the foraging costs of within-group competition. Yet, between-group interactions and shifting resource di...
www.biorxiv.org
New paper from my group led by Odd Jacobson, former PhD student & current postdoc @livingingroups.bsky.social : How do animal groups simultaneously balance between- and within-group competition in dynamic environments and does this impact movement and space use? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
the IUCN have passed the Longevity Conservation motion put forward to them by @kellerfish.bsky.social and @pili-scotland.bsky.social and based on the paper we wrote on the value of older individuals in animal societies.
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
Global body adopts policy to protect Earth’s old, wise and large animals | Charles Darwin University
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has recognised Charles Darwin University-led research into the Earth’s oldest animals with the adoption of the ‘Longevity Conservation’ global...
www.cdu.edu.au
October 24, 2025 at 8:28 AM
the IUCN have passed the Longevity Conservation motion put forward to them by @kellerfish.bsky.social and @pili-scotland.bsky.social and based on the paper we wrote on the value of older individuals in animal societies.
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
Was asked about collinearity again, so here's Vahove's 2019 post on why it isn't a problem that needs a solution. Design the model(s) to answer a formal question and free your mind janhove.github.io/posts/2019-0...
October 1, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Was asked about collinearity again, so here's Vahove's 2019 post on why it isn't a problem that needs a solution. Design the model(s) to answer a formal question and free your mind janhove.github.io/posts/2019-0...
Do any stats nerds have a good reference/examples for how to write about Gaussian Processes models and communicate them to readers? I am estimating spatial autocorrelation of things measured in grids and need some inspiration to guide my writing.
October 15, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Do any stats nerds have a good reference/examples for how to write about Gaussian Processes models and communicate them to readers? I am estimating spatial autocorrelation of things measured in grids and need some inspiration to guide my writing.
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
I really strongly feel that some fields of research would profit if researchers stopped collecting online data for some time and instead maybe just read a bit outside of their field.
October 7, 2025 at 7:30 AM
I really strongly feel that some fields of research would profit if researchers stopped collecting online data for some time and instead maybe just read a bit outside of their field.
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
Want to know more about monkeys kidnapping other monkeys?🐒 I had an amazing chat together with @bjjbarrett.bsky.social on @sidedoorpod.bsky.social about the Coiban capuchins and their wild antics. Science really is stranger than fiction! Listen 👂 here: www.si.edu/sidedoor/mon...
October 6, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Want to know more about monkeys kidnapping other monkeys?🐒 I had an amazing chat together with @bjjbarrett.bsky.social on @sidedoorpod.bsky.social about the Coiban capuchins and their wild antics. Science really is stranger than fiction! Listen 👂 here: www.si.edu/sidedoor/mon...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
I am happy to announce that our project on risk and social learning is now in press at Psychological Review. Several new additions and revisions thanks to detailed feedback from colleagues and anonymous reviewers. osf.io/preprints/so...
@psmaldino.bsky.social @babeheim.bsky.social
@psmaldino.bsky.social @babeheim.bsky.social
September 27, 2025 at 12:14 AM
I am happy to announce that our project on risk and social learning is now in press at Psychological Review. Several new additions and revisions thanks to detailed feedback from colleagues and anonymous reviewers. osf.io/preprints/so...
@psmaldino.bsky.social @babeheim.bsky.social
@psmaldino.bsky.social @babeheim.bsky.social
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
On Wed, Dec 10 I will be offering my comprehensive introduction to regression modeling at a steep discount in an effort to raise funds for World Central Kitchen and United Farm Workers. Details about the course and registration process can be found on my website, betanalpha.github.io/courses/.
Courses
betanalpha.github.io
October 1, 2025 at 5:42 PM
On Wed, Dec 10 I will be offering my comprehensive introduction to regression modeling at a steep discount in an effort to raise funds for World Central Kitchen and United Farm Workers. Details about the course and registration process can be found on my website, betanalpha.github.io/courses/.
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
Seen in the hallways of Aarhus University. <<Chef’s kiss>>
September 25, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Seen in the hallways of Aarhus University. <<Chef’s kiss>>
I will be using my annual conference carbon flight credit to go to this conference (unless anyone else would like to bike to Morocco from Spain with me...)
👉 Full guidelines and requirements are available on the conference website.
🔗 Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to your contributions to CES2026!
🔗 Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to your contributions to CES2026!
September 26, 2025 at 8:20 AM
I will be using my annual conference carbon flight credit to go to this conference (unless anyone else would like to bike to Morocco from Spain with me...)
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
🧠 Want to integrate cultural evolution into your course using award winning materials created by the field's experts, and get paid $2000 to do it? 💵
🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards.
🔖 Apply here: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards.
🔖 Apply here: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
vuw.qualtrics.com
August 21, 2025 at 3:15 PM
🧠 Want to integrate cultural evolution into your course using award winning materials created by the field's experts, and get paid $2000 to do it? 💵
🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards.
🔖 Apply here: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards.
🔖 Apply here: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
New paper from my group led by Odd Jacobson, former PhD student & current postdoc @livingingroups.bsky.social : How do animal groups simultaneously balance between- and within-group competition in dynamic environments and does this impact movement and space use? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Between-group competitive advantage offsets foraging costs for bigger groups in harsher seasons
Larger animal groups are widely understood to require more space and travel farther to mitigate the foraging costs of within-group competition. Yet, between-group interactions and shifting resource di...
www.biorxiv.org
August 20, 2025 at 12:02 PM
New paper from my group led by Odd Jacobson, former PhD student & current postdoc @livingingroups.bsky.social : How do animal groups simultaneously balance between- and within-group competition in dynamic environments and does this impact movement and space use? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
📣 Interested in cultural evolution and artificial life? Call for abstracts for our upcoming workshop at @alife2025.bsky.social. Accepted abstracts will be presented as flash talks, and are not archival. Deadline is the September 12, w/ rolling acceptance. Details: sites.google.com/view/planetx... 🧪
August 13, 2025 at 8:56 AM
📣 Interested in cultural evolution and artificial life? Call for abstracts for our upcoming workshop at @alife2025.bsky.social. Accepted abstracts will be presented as flash talks, and are not archival. Deadline is the September 12, w/ rolling acceptance. Details: sites.google.com/view/planetx... 🧪
its a `beepr` kind of day
August 7, 2025 at 7:59 AM
its a `beepr` kind of day
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
🐒🕸️ New preprint! Confused about how to model animal social networks?
ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!
A 🧵
ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!
A 🧵
Five misunderstandings in animal social network analysis
ecoevorxiv.org
August 4, 2025 at 4:21 PM
🐒🕸️ New preprint! Confused about how to model animal social networks?
ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!
A 🧵
ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!
A 🧵
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
@michelleakline.bsky.social @ehbea.bsky.social
@ehbea2025.bsky.social @durhampsych.bsky.social
@durhamanthropology.bsky.social @eslr.bsky.social @bjjbarrett.bsky.social @nataliabdutra.bsky.social @rebeccasear.bsky.social @acerbialberto.com @nicolewen.bsky.social @iyadrahwan.bsky.social
@ehbea2025.bsky.social @durhampsych.bsky.social
@durhamanthropology.bsky.social @eslr.bsky.social @bjjbarrett.bsky.social @nataliabdutra.bsky.social @rebeccasear.bsky.social @acerbialberto.com @nicolewen.bsky.social @iyadrahwan.bsky.social
New 2 year post-doc position on cultural adaptation in complex environmental management.
Post-Doctoral Position on Cultural Adaptation in Forest Management
The University of Maine seeks a post-doctoral researcher for a two-year project on human cultural adaptation in forest management, requiring a strong quantitative background and experience in modeling.
timwaring.info
July 9, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Congrats to Dr. @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social on successfully defending her dissertation @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social and @imprs-qbee.bsky.social
July 7, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Congrats to Dr. @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social on successfully defending her dissertation @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social and @imprs-qbee.bsky.social
Hot new summer guilty pleasure read 🏖️
July 3, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Hot new summer guilty pleasure read 🏖️
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
In an effort to make old papers more reproducible, I’ve put the code on GitHub for:
Kempe, Lycett & Mesoudi (2014) From cultural traditions to cumulative culture: parameterising the differences between human and nonhuman culture. Journal of Theoretical Biology 359, 29-36
github.com/amesoudi/kem...
Kempe, Lycett & Mesoudi (2014) From cultural traditions to cumulative culture: parameterising the differences between human and nonhuman culture. Journal of Theoretical Biology 359, 29-36
github.com/amesoudi/kem...
June 30, 2025 at 9:50 AM
In an effort to make old papers more reproducible, I’ve put the code on GitHub for:
Kempe, Lycett & Mesoudi (2014) From cultural traditions to cumulative culture: parameterising the differences between human and nonhuman culture. Journal of Theoretical Biology 359, 29-36
github.com/amesoudi/kem...
Kempe, Lycett & Mesoudi (2014) From cultural traditions to cumulative culture: parameterising the differences between human and nonhuman culture. Journal of Theoretical Biology 359, 29-36
github.com/amesoudi/kem...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM
From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...
journals.plos.org
June 24, 2025 at 6:09 PM
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
there has been a bunch of (many good) papers coming about about integrating Causal Inference and DAGS into research about behavior and ecology (i.e. doi.org/10.1111/brv....) but i thought it might be useful to show some example empirical papers that do so (see growing thread)...
Ecology needs a causal overhaul
Ecology has yet to embrace causal inference, yet most questions in ecology are causal. Despite the common use of terms that imply causation, such as “shapes”, “drives”, or “impacts”, many studies shy...
doi.org
June 6, 2025 at 11:20 AM
there has been a bunch of (many good) papers coming about about integrating Causal Inference and DAGS into research about behavior and ecology (i.e. doi.org/10.1111/brv....) but i thought it might be useful to show some example empirical papers that do so (see growing thread)...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
Did you know that our field guide to cross-cultural research on childhood learning is completely FREE?
books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp...
books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp...
books.openbookpublishers.com
June 6, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Did you know that our field guide to cross-cultural research on childhood learning is completely FREE?
books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp...
books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
My paper with @schmidmax.bsky.social and @charlesmullon.bsky.social is out in @journal-evo.bsky.social 🌟 doi.org/10.1093/evol... 🌟 We show how the effect of longevity on local adaptation, rather than being unidirectional, depends on the life cycle and how frequent selection is relative to dispersal
The evolution of local adaptation in long-lived species
Abstract. Many species experience heterogeneous environments and adapt genetically to local conditions. The extent of such local adaptation depends on a ba
doi.org
June 3, 2025 at 7:26 AM
My paper with @schmidmax.bsky.social and @charlesmullon.bsky.social is out in @journal-evo.bsky.social 🌟 doi.org/10.1093/evol... 🌟 We show how the effect of longevity on local adaptation, rather than being unidirectional, depends on the life cycle and how frequent selection is relative to dispersal
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
PSA: Don’t trust anyone who tells you that you can identify age or period or cohort effects simply by applying the right statistical model to the right type of data. This is fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of the age-period-cohort problem!>
May 27, 2025 at 3:07 PM
PSA: Don’t trust anyone who tells you that you can identify age or period or cohort effects simply by applying the right statistical model to the right type of data. This is fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of the age-period-cohort problem!>
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
Do you use Earth Observation #data for #wildlife #ecology? Take this survey to share how you use remotesensing, climate and weather data. Part of SOS (www.dfg-sos.de), a project of @dlr-de.bsky.social, @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social, @uni-wuerzburg.de
survey.lamapoll.de/EarthObserva...
survey.lamapoll.de/EarthObserva...
May 27, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Do you use Earth Observation #data for #wildlife #ecology? Take this survey to share how you use remotesensing, climate and weather data. Part of SOS (www.dfg-sos.de), a project of @dlr-de.bsky.social, @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social, @uni-wuerzburg.de
survey.lamapoll.de/EarthObserva...
survey.lamapoll.de/EarthObserva...
Reposted by Brendan Barrett
Capuchins surprising us again, this time rather unpleasantly... featuring @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social and @bjjbarrett.bsky.social! www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
These capuchins are abducting babies from howler monkeys—for fun?
A young male nicknamed Joker was probably the first to start carrying a howler monkey baby on his back for days on end. Then a group of other young males started to copy him.
www.nationalgeographic.com
May 19, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Capuchins surprising us again, this time rather unpleasantly... featuring @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social and @bjjbarrett.bsky.social! www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...