Guy Lavender Forsyth
@guylavenderforsyth.bsky.social
Research Fellow @ University of Auckland
Cultural evolution, cross-cultural psych of politics + religion, causal analysis of language endangerment, & the history of Vanuatu: mixing qualitative + quantitative
https://tinyurl.com/guylavenderforsyth
Cultural evolution, cross-cultural psych of politics + religion, causal analysis of language endangerment, & the history of Vanuatu: mixing qualitative + quantitative
https://tinyurl.com/guylavenderforsyth
Pinned
The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life | Current Anthropology
Many people in Western countries represent the political landscape as a single dimension of conflict: authority, hierarchy, and tradition on the right versus greater freedom, equality, and systemic ch...
www.journals.uchicago.edu
Extremely happy to see some of my PhD work out in Current Anthropology!
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
A few words on survey weights, why I'm embarrassed to have forgotten to take them into account in the past, and how I got lucky because I personally didn't get burned. Not a mistake I intend to repeat in the future
blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2025-0...
blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2025-0...
Some notes on survey weights – Notes from a data witch
An area of statistics in which the author is not strong, and really needs to up her game
blog.djnavarro.net
September 28, 2025 at 6:16 AM
A few words on survey weights, why I'm embarrassed to have forgotten to take them into account in the past, and how I got lucky because I personally didn't get burned. Not a mistake I intend to repeat in the future
blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2025-0...
blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2025-0...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Now out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social. In our new article, @denis-cohen.bsky.social @thmskrr.bsky.social and I show that where local rent prices increase more, residents with lower incomes become more likely to support the radical right AfD.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
September 25, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Now out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social. In our new article, @denis-cohen.bsky.social @thmskrr.bsky.social and I show that where local rent prices increase more, residents with lower incomes become more likely to support the radical right AfD.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
Fees and Funding - Durham University
www.durham.ac.uk
September 11, 2025 at 9:12 AM
@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD
Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers!
This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers!
This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother
Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.
www.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 10:09 PM
woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD
Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers!
This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers!
This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Climate models since the 1970s nailed it—most predicted global warming almost exactly as it happened.
August 18, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Climate models since the 1970s nailed it—most predicted global warming almost exactly as it happened.
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
My colleague Quentin Atkinson wrote this piece - How Not To Run a University. It is an insanely good read about how managerialism is destroying universities.
Make time for it. Talk about it. Share it.
quentinatkinson.substack.com/s/how-not-to...
Make time for it. Talk about it. Share it.
quentinatkinson.substack.com/s/how-not-to...
How not to run a university | Quentin’s Substack | Quentin Atkinson | Substack
A case study of one university’s managerial misadventures, why it is happening and what we can do about it. Click to read Quentin’s Substack, by Quentin Atkinson, a Substack publication. Launched a mo...
quentinatkinson.substack.com
July 19, 2025 at 8:54 AM
My colleague Quentin Atkinson wrote this piece - How Not To Run a University. It is an insanely good read about how managerialism is destroying universities.
Make time for it. Talk about it. Share it.
quentinatkinson.substack.com/s/how-not-to...
Make time for it. Talk about it. Share it.
quentinatkinson.substack.com/s/how-not-to...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Happy to share our new paper introducing the Animal Culture Database in Scientific Data: We’re putting together a resource consolidating primary research on cultural behaviors in wild animal populations and how they’re affected by human activity (1/5) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database
www.nature.com
June 22, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Happy to share our new paper introducing the Animal Culture Database in Scientific Data: We’re putting together a resource consolidating primary research on cultural behaviors in wild animal populations and how they’re affected by human activity (1/5) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
"Nasa has revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of..events such as droughts & floods over the past 5 years. The study shows that..extreme events are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting & more severe"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Nasa data reveals dramatic rise in intensity of weather events
Extreme events such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, study says
www.theguardian.com
June 18, 2025 at 2:34 AM
"Nasa has revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of..events such as droughts & floods over the past 5 years. The study shows that..extreme events are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting & more severe"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
I could not be more proud of my lab, and my fantastic colleagues for the study they just published in @nature.com revealing a massive expansion of our species' niche before dispersing out of Africa. Have a read, because it's an amazing paper 🤩
#newpaper now out in @nature.com!
A huge expansion of the human niche in Africa ~70 kya likely equipped later #outofAfrica dispersals with a unique ecological flexibility.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
led by Emily Hallett, @mikleonardi.bsky.social, Andrea Manica, @elliescerri.bsky.social 1/4
A huge expansion of the human niche in Africa ~70 kya likely equipped later #outofAfrica dispersals with a unique ecological flexibility.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
led by Emily Hallett, @mikleonardi.bsky.social, Andrea Manica, @elliescerri.bsky.social 1/4
Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal - Nature
Analysis of species distribution models in a pan-African database comprising chronometrically dated archaeological sites over the past 120,000 years shows major expansion in the human niche from 70 ka...
www.nature.com
June 18, 2025 at 3:47 PM
I could not be more proud of my lab, and my fantastic colleagues for the study they just published in @nature.com revealing a massive expansion of our species' niche before dispersing out of Africa. Have a read, because it's an amazing paper 🤩
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Fascinating - not least on why different datasets produce very different results.
Is there really a religious revival in England? Why I’m sceptical of a new report
In Anglican and Catholic churches, average weekly attendance is down about 20% from pre-pandemic levels.
theconversation.com
June 17, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Fascinating - not least on why different datasets produce very different results.
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
“Historically, no one lived past age 35”
"I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim, including recently from a menopause doctor (implying menopause is not “natural” because noone lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul"
"I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim, including recently from a menopause doctor (implying menopause is not “natural” because noone lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul"
There Were Still Old People When Life Expectancy Was 35.
A demography myth that won't die
jenndowd.substack.com
June 16, 2025 at 10:16 AM
“Historically, no one lived past age 35”
"I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim, including recently from a menopause doctor (implying menopause is not “natural” because noone lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul"
"I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim, including recently from a menopause doctor (implying menopause is not “natural” because noone lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul"
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Our recently published paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review on #reasoning styles and #belief in God is now featured by @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social!
Thanks, Jonathan Caballero, for the interesting article.
📄 Read the paper here: doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Thanks, Jonathan Caballero, for the interesting article.
📄 Read the paper here: doi.org/10.3758/s134...
June 5, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Our recently published paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review on #reasoning styles and #belief in God is now featured by @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social!
Thanks, Jonathan Caballero, for the interesting article.
📄 Read the paper here: doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Thanks, Jonathan Caballero, for the interesting article.
📄 Read the paper here: doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
I was really excited when I saw this study being presented at @icarehb.bsky.social last January and I'm really glad to see the paper out! Amazing record of cultural transmission strategies & cultural traits over 3 million years 🤩
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage during the last 3.3 million years
Humans accumulate an ever-growing body of knowledge that far exceeds the capacity of any single individual or generation. Social learning and transmission are essential for this process. However, how ...
journals.plos.org
June 4, 2025 at 9:29 PM
I was really excited when I saw this study being presented at @icarehb.bsky.social last January and I'm really glad to see the paper out! Amazing record of cultural transmission strategies & cultural traits over 3 million years 🤩
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Very thought provoking
But it's difficult to see how “science cannot be mandated” tackles the incentives for 'fast science', quantity over quality, etc that the best of Open Science aims to overturn
But it's difficult to see how “science cannot be mandated” tackles the incentives for 'fast science', quantity over quality, etc that the best of Open Science aims to overturn
Fantastic blog post on the new EO and #openscience by Kevin Munger
kevinmunger.substack.com/p/open-scien...
kevinmunger.substack.com/p/open-scien...
Open Science and Its Enemies
Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order nominally aimed at “Restoring Gold Standard Science”. Setting aside the absurdity of “restoring” something that never existed, what does that purport to mean...
kevinmunger.substack.com
June 3, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Very thought provoking
But it's difficult to see how “science cannot be mandated” tackles the incentives for 'fast science', quantity over quality, etc that the best of Open Science aims to overturn
But it's difficult to see how “science cannot be mandated” tackles the incentives for 'fast science', quantity over quality, etc that the best of Open Science aims to overturn
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
🚨🚨 NEW PRE-PRINT 🚨🚨
Prominent theories in political psychology argue that threat causes increases in conservatism. Early experimental work supported this idea, but many of these studies were (severely) underpowered, and examined only a few threats and ideological DVs. 1/n osf.io/preprints/ps...
Prominent theories in political psychology argue that threat causes increases in conservatism. Early experimental work supported this idea, but many of these studies were (severely) underpowered, and examined only a few threats and ideological DVs. 1/n osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
May 20, 2025 at 10:47 PM
🚨🚨 NEW PRE-PRINT 🚨🚨
Prominent theories in political psychology argue that threat causes increases in conservatism. Early experimental work supported this idea, but many of these studies were (severely) underpowered, and examined only a few threats and ideological DVs. 1/n osf.io/preprints/ps...
Prominent theories in political psychology argue that threat causes increases in conservatism. Early experimental work supported this idea, but many of these studies were (severely) underpowered, and examined only a few threats and ideological DVs. 1/n osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧪 New research for the science feed from #anthropology!
Extremely happy to see some of my PhD work out in Current Anthropology!
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life | Current Anthropology
Many people in Western countries represent the political landscape as a single dimension of conflict: authority, hierarchy, and tradition on the right versus greater freedom, equality, and systemic ch...
www.journals.uchicago.edu
May 8, 2025 at 10:12 AM
🧪 New research for the science feed from #anthropology!
Extremely happy to see some of my PhD work out in Current Anthropology!
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life | Current Anthropology
Many people in Western countries represent the political landscape as a single dimension of conflict: authority, hierarchy, and tradition on the right versus greater freedom, equality, and systemic ch...
www.journals.uchicago.edu
May 1, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Extremely happy to see some of my PhD work out in Current Anthropology!
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
"The Dual Foundations of Political Ideology Are Ubiquitous across Human Social Life"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Thing I just learned in #rstats: unz() lets you connect to a .zip and load files from inside it without actually unzipping it (great for a file I'm working with that's 30 MB zipped and 1+ GB unzipped, with multiple CSVs in it)
April 18, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Thing I just learned in #rstats: unz() lets you connect to a .zip and load files from inside it without actually unzipping it (great for a file I'm working with that's 30 MB zipped and 1+ GB unzipped, with multiple CSVs in it)
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Two Fully-Funded PhD positions at Auckland Uni!
Come help us understand the past and future of global cultural and linguistic diversity.
#linguistics #evolution #academia #phd
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Come help us understand the past and future of global cultural and linguistic diversity.
#linguistics #evolution #academia #phd
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
March 24, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Two Fully-Funded PhD positions at Auckland Uni!
Come help us understand the past and future of global cultural and linguistic diversity.
#linguistics #evolution #academia #phd
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Come help us understand the past and future of global cultural and linguistic diversity.
#linguistics #evolution #academia #phd
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
A few words of appreciation for Marc Neil-Jones, founder of the Vanuatu Daily Post. I owe my journalism career to him.
village-explainer.kabisan.com/index.php/20...
village-explainer.kabisan.com/index.php/20...
March 12, 2025 at 12:59 AM
A few words of appreciation for Marc Neil-Jones, founder of the Vanuatu Daily Post. I owe my journalism career to him.
village-explainer.kabisan.com/index.php/20...
village-explainer.kabisan.com/index.php/20...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Religion data for reuse! Those stories about U.S. religion you're currently seeing in the news? They're from the Pew 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study. While anyone can explore the data with their online tools, Pew has also shared the underlying dataset: doi.org/10.58094/3kw...
2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) Dataset Archives
doi.org
February 26, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Religion data for reuse! Those stories about U.S. religion you're currently seeing in the news? They're from the Pew 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study. While anyone can explore the data with their online tools, Pew has also shared the underlying dataset: doi.org/10.58094/3kw...
Reposted by Guy Lavender Forsyth
Thrilled to see this out! In our new Psych Review paper, we argue that prosocial religious beliefs develop as people strategically push narratives that motivate others to cooperate. We show how this "mutual policing" dynamic explains (among other things) the origins, decline, & varieties of belief.
Where do moralizing religions come from? Useless cognitive by-products?Cultural group selection for complex societies?
Our Psych Review paper argues: neither. Let’s rethink their cognitive & evolutionary origins🧵
w/ @manvir.bsky.social @nbaumard @jbaptistandre.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1037/rev0...
Our Psych Review paper argues: neither. Let’s rethink their cognitive & evolutionary origins🧵
w/ @manvir.bsky.social @nbaumard @jbaptistandre.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1037/rev0...
February 11, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Thrilled to see this out! In our new Psych Review paper, we argue that prosocial religious beliefs develop as people strategically push narratives that motivate others to cooperate. We show how this "mutual policing" dynamic explains (among other things) the origins, decline, & varieties of belief.