Rebecca Sear
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rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear
@rebeccasear.bsky.social
11K followers 3.8K following 2.9K 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 · 12h
yes, weird email. Did not reply because of multiple red flags (including wanting assessment of the novelty of publications, when surely we've all agreed novelty is the worst scientific indicator of quality)

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 13h
Mothers and Maternal Grandmothers Kept Children Alive During Slavery: Evidence From the Surinamese Slave Registers, 1830–1863

doi.org/10.1215/0070...
Mothers and Maternal Grandmothers Kept Children Alive During Slavery: Evidence From the Surinamese Slave Registers, 1830–1863
Abstract. Studies have shown strong relationships between the presence of kin and children's survival outcomes in historical and contemporary low-income contexts. However, this relationship has never ...
doi.org

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

ehbea2026.bsky.social
EHBEA 2026 @ehbea2026.bsky.social · 13h
🚨Plenary Announcement for #EHBEA2026🎤✨
We’re very excited to welcome Prof Cat Hobaiter (University of St Andrews🏛️)
With her fieldwork in Uganda and Guinea on gestural and multimodal communication in apes🐒, her research is reshaping how we understand the evolution of language!🗣️
👉 www.wildminds.ac.uk
Wild Minds Lab
www.wildminds.ac.uk

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 18h
“Cultural context plays a huge role in questions of family planning and sexual health, and it’s essential that healthcare providers in the UK understand the context of the women they treat”

www.wellbeingofwomen.org.uk/what-we-do/r...
Attitudes to contraception in the UK: ethnic minority and religious perspectives - Wellbeing of Women
A landmark study by Fatima Nasiru Nabage and supervisor Dr Becky Mawson of the DeepEnd Research Alliance at University of Sheffield offers guidance for better conversations about contraception. Illust...
www.wellbeingofwomen.org.uk

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
“Snow leopards are found in just 12 countries across Central and South Asia. India is home to one of the world's largest populations, with a nationwide survey in 2023 - the first comprehensive count ever carried out in the country - estimating more than 700 animals”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Spiti, Himachal Pradesh: Meet the women protecting India's snow leopards
The women brave biting cold to count and conserve a predator once seen as a threat in their villages.
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

ehbea.bsky.social
EHBEA @ehbea.bsky.social · 2d
🚨WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT🚨

EHBEA wants to congratulate @nicolewalasek.bsky.social on earning the EHBEA Award of New Investigator👏

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d
“Our new review of the growing body of research on the manosphere reveals how it’s evolved.

It used to be largely special interest men’s rights groups, such as pick-up artists and incels. It’s now a widely mainstreamed and commercialised ecosystem, led by high-profile influencers or “manfluencers””
Hustle, muscle and grift: how the manosphere has grown into a money-making machine
No longer relegated to an obscure corner of the internet, manfluencers have found ways to expand their audiences and exploit them for profit.
theconversation.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d
Gordon Brown on the Today programme this morning argued that politicians shouldn’t have other jobs. Wonder if a cap on academics’ extramural earnings would solve a lot of the problems our profession has?

Reposted by Rebecca Sear, Patricia Owens, Pauline Stafford

eicathomefinn.bsky.social
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2d
'The Epstein files reveal a patriarchy in action. This is a world where the men are rich and powerful, and the women are not. The emails showcase the private behaviour of a male ruling class, as they network, joke and trade information.'
Sex and snacks, but no seat at the table: the role of women in Epstein’s sordid men’s club
Files reveal a world of flattery and fratboy tones, where rich men are cultivated and women provide services
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

conradhackett.bsky.social
Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d
MY NEW OP-ED: Why I doubt surveys suggesting a quiet revival among young adults in Britain www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/why-...
We may be seeing anecdotal evidence of some growing, lively churches, says Dr Conrad Hackett. But that doesn’t mean the data shows an increase in church attendance or people identifying as Christian. As a demographer, he explains why the survey methodology is as important as its findings It’s my job to assess religion data. And in my expert judgement, the survey evidence for a Christian resurgence among young adults in Britain is weak. As a demographer of religion at Pew Research Center, I analyse census and survey data from around the world to understand how religious landscapes are changing. Between 2010 and 2020, the United Kingdom saw a 13 percentage point drop in the Christian share of its population (from 62% to 49%). Other countries experiencing such large drops included Australia, Canada and the United States. In such places, younger generations typically are less religious than their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. This pattern is often how religion declines around the world. However, reports have appeared in the British media about surveys that find surprisingly high levels of religious commitment among young adults. For example, in 2021, the BBC reported on a Savanta poll that found monthly worship attendance among 18 to 34-year olds was three times the rate among people over 55. This poll was commissioned by the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer. Last year, Bible Society described a “The Quiet Revival” in which “Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance.” This claim was based on a YouGov survey commissioned by Bible Society in 2024. It found that the share of churchgoing Christians in England and Wales was higher among 18-to-24-year-olds than among adults as a whole. And, according to a Savanta poll commissioned by Tearfund, most British adults under 45 planned to attend church last Christmas, while a majority of older adults did not. It is important to understand that none of these surveys recruited respondents at random from the general population. Instead, they canvassed members of opt-in panels who signed up to take the surveys. These respondents were recruited through methods such as online advertising, self-enrolment and email lists. It is important to understand that none of these surveys recruited respondents at random from the general population. Instead, they canvassed members of opt-in panels who signed up to take the surveys. These respondents were recruited through methods such as online advertising, self-enrolment and email lists. My colleagues at Pew Research Center have previously demonstrated that opt-in surveys may be biased by “bogus respondents” who, instead of answering questions honestly, answer with the minimal effort required to complete surveys quickly and receive monetary rewards. Bogus respondents are often a large share of those who claim to be young adults in opt-in surveys. Therefore, the results for young adults may be especially dubious. Opt-in polls have generated surprising headlines about young adults - and not just in the religious realm. For example, a recent story in Fortune magazine announced an opt-in survey found that 77% of Gen Z job seekers have brought a parent to an interview. If opt-in polls may lead us astray, what kind of polls should we trust? The gold standard in social science research is surveys that use random samples of the population. In such surveys, you can participate only if the researchers randomly select you. You can’t volunteer (opt in). You have to be chosen randomly on the basis of your telephone number or home address. Surveys based on random samples show that Christian identity and practice are not increasing among young adults in Britain. For example, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) measures religious self-identification among more than 50,000 individuals in a typical quarter across more than 20,000 randomly sampled UK households. In summer 2025, the LFS showed that 44% of adults in Britain identified as Christian, down from 54% in early 2018. Moreover, Christian identification is declining across age groups. In the LFS, 28% of 18-to-34-year-olds identified as Christian in summer 2025, down from 37% in early 2018. Throughout this period, older British adults consistently identified as Christian at higher levels than young adults. Of course, many self-identified Christians are not regular churchgoers. Since the LFS doesn’t measure worship attendance, we can turn to another long-standing survey that uses random population samples to see how the churchgoing Christian share of the adult population has changed. The annual British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey measures religious identity and worship attendance in Britain, based on a random sample of more than 3,000 adults. BSA data shows no clear evidence of a Christian revival. Among all adult respondents, the share who identify as Christians and who go to church at least once a month was 12% in 2018 and 9% in 2024. Similarly, the share of young adults who are Christian churchgoers has not risen above pre-pandemic levels, according to the BSA survey. Among 18-to-34-year-olds, 6% were in this category in 2024, compared to 8% in 2018.

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 3d
Suspect a scarily large proportion of US/UK academia is in the same position 😢

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 3d
The UK seems to be doing a not-unreasonable job of responding to evidence in the Epstein files (Mandelson, Mountbatten-Windsor). Academia largely seems to be giving a collective shrug?

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 3d
Once attended a dinner with Trivers after a talk he gave, so I guess it’s one 😬
ceej.online ceej @ceej.online · 4d
Your "Epstein Number" is the number of hops between you and someone sending a chummy email to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear

confronteugenics.bsky.social
Confront-Eugenics @confronteugenics.bsky.social · 3d
A one-day workshop hosted by the Centre for Medical Humanities (Oxford Brookes University), exploring the history and legacy of eugenics and commemorating Daniel Kevles’ major contribution to the field. 📅 Thursday 19 March 2026

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 3d
As the influencers say, stay with this. I found it a rather touching and hopeful antidote to all the population panic around

youtu.be/1rFeyW1lS_8?...
PMAC 2026 : Life Is More Than Number
YouTube video by Prince Mahidol Award Conference
youtu.be

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

ggp-cz.bsky.social
Generations & Gender Programme Czech Republic @ggp-cz.bsky.social · 4d
📢 Call for survey questions!

💡 GGP is inviting proposals for innovative, inspiring, and ready-to-field survey questions or modules to include in the GGS-II Wave 3 questionnaire
🗓️ Submission deadline: March 22, 2026

More details are available here: www.ggp-i.org/engage/get-i...

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 4d
“the Southend campus was established at a time when the New Labour government was intent on making sure as many people as possible could go to university. Back then there was a clear national vision for universities, and they were mostly publicly funded. Now you stand or fall on your student demand”
‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?
When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 4d
This is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of democracy on this side of the Atlantic, and I’m not being hyperbolic.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 4d
The last few days may have given the impression that academia is full of only people who range from jerks to full-on abusers, but reading the applications for EHBEA’s Service to the Community award is a happy antidote. There are many academics who are very much not jerks!

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 4d
Congratulations to Thomas! Science needs more Thomases, and more celebrations of those who are such an all-round asset to their communities 😊
ehbea.bsky.social EHBEA @ehbea.bsky.social · 4d
🚨WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT🚨

EHBEA wants to congratulate @tvpollet.bsky.social
on earning the EHBEA Award on Services to the Community 👏

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

ceej.online
ceej @ceej.online · 4d
Your "Epstein Number" is the number of hops between you and someone sending a chummy email to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

brunelcce.bsky.social
Centre for Culture and Evolution @brunelcce.bsky.social · 4d
1/ New paper from @brunelpsy.bsky.social CCE in Evolution & Human Behavior looks at secularisation in Mauritius 🇲🇺

Nachita Rosun, @matthewmgervais.bsky.social and @aiyanakoka.bsky.social have been testing big theories outside the usual Western settings 🌏

🔗 👇
Existential security and the cultural evolution of secularisation in Mauritius
Despite the central role of religion in human history and its continued global growth, an increasing number of individuals identify as secular or athe…
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

ehbea.bsky.social
EHBEA @ehbea.bsky.social · 4d
🚨WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT🚨

EHBEA wants to congratulate @tvpollet.bsky.social
on earning the EHBEA Award on Services to the Community 👏

Reposted by Dietram A. Scheufele, Richard McElreath, Elena Litchman , and 2 more

idiv-research.bsky.social
iDiv Biodiversity Research @idiv-research.bsky.social · 5d
📢 Call for registrations - Science:TBD
📍 Leipzig | 3–4 March 2026

Join us for an inspiring lineup of keynotes:
⭐Sheena F. Bartscherer
⭐Alice Hughes @achughes.bsky.social
⭐Wolfgang Forstmeier
⭐Ulrich Dirnagl
⭐Dietram A. Scheufele @dietram.bsky.social

Register now: www.idiv.de/science-tbd

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

siobhancully.bsky.social
Siobhán Cully 🇺🇸 🐱🥼🤓🩼 @siobhancully.bsky.social · 5d
Good morning! We have just learned that our article on experiences and recommendations for faculty with disabilities has been published:

www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/15...
www.mdpi.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

loraadair.bsky.social
Dr Lora Adair @loraadair.bsky.social · 5d
97% of r@pists walk free in the UK. Survivors don't. Let's change that!

This petition calls for free civil legal support for survivors, creating a real route to accountability where criminal justice often fails - and helping prevent repeat harm over time.

therightwordsproject.org/petition-fre...
Petition - Free Civil Legal Support for Survivors of Sexual Violence
Support free civil legal support for sexual violence survivors. Help create a fair, accessible path to justice when the system fails to act.
therightwordsproject.org

Reposted by Richard McElreath, Mark Rubin, Rebecca Sear , and 6 more

dingdingpeng.the100.ci
Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 5d
New preprint! So, what's a multiverse analysis good for anyway?>

With @jessicahullman.bsky.social and @statmodeling.bsky.social

juliarohrer.com/wp-content/u...
What’s a multiverse good for anyway? Julia M. Rohrer, Jessica Hullman, and Andrew Gelman Multiverse analysis has become a fairly popular approach, as indicated by the present special issue on the matter. Here, we take one step back and ask why one would conduct a multiverse analysis in the first place. We discuss various ways in which a multiverse may be employed – as a tool for reflection and critique, as a persuasive tool, as a serious inferential tool – as well as potential problems that arise depending on the specific purpose. For example, it fails as a persuasive tool when researchers disagree about which variations should be included in the analysis, and it fails as a serious inferential tool when the included analyses do not target a coherent estimand. Then, we take yet another step back and ask what the multiverse discourse has been good for and whether any broader lessons can be drawn. Ultimately, we conclude that the multiverse does remain a valuable tool; however, we urge against taking it too seriously.

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 5d
Interesting read on the impact of private equity on the UK restaurant sector: “Over the last few decades, the sector has gobbled up £1.2 trillion in assets across the British economy, a greater proportion than any other advanced economy. Strangely, it has shown a remarkable taste for British food”
Whining and Dining
Sometimes, everything must change so that things can stay the same. Since it opened in 1889, Sweetings has been serving fish lunches smack-bang in the middle of London’s Square Mile, closing by 3pm on...
www.the-fence.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 6d
Congrats to Lynda and Sheina on their EHBEA public communication award! 🎉
ehbea.bsky.social EHBEA @ehbea.bsky.social · 6d
🚨WINNER ANNOUNCEMET🚨

EHBEA wants to congratulate @drboothroyd.bsky.social and @sheinalew.bsky.social on earning the 2026 EHBEA Award in Excellence in Public Communication and Outreach👏

@durhampsych.bsky.social
@durham.ac.uk

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

ehbea.bsky.social
EHBEA @ehbea.bsky.social · 6d
🚨WINNER ANNOUNCEMET🚨

EHBEA wants to congratulate @drboothroyd.bsky.social and @sheinalew.bsky.social on earning the 2026 EHBEA Award in Excellence in Public Communication and Outreach👏

@durhampsych.bsky.social
@durham.ac.uk