Anne Pisor
@annepisor.bsky.social
Faculty (Penn State), lab director (https://socialitylab.org), entrepreneur. Interdisciplinary anthropologist studying how people use cooperation to manage risk. Foodie. 🌎🌍
We're located in State College, PA, a happy medium between city and country. You can live downtown and bike to restaurants and festivals, or live in the countryside with land and quiet -- and either way you're within 15 minutes of campus 💯
October 1, 2025 at 12:58 PM
We're located in State College, PA, a happy medium between city and country. You can live downtown and bike to restaurants and festivals, or live in the countryside with land and quiet -- and either way you're within 15 minutes of campus 💯
Penn State is serious about interdisciplinarity. It's baked into performance reviews, stimulated by seed grants, and central to our research institutes -- they're the extra glue that bring and hold us together 🤝
October 1, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Penn State is serious about interdisciplinarity. It's baked into performance reviews, stimulated by seed grants, and central to our research institutes -- they're the extra glue that bring and hold us together 🤝
Penn State Anthropology is an integrative anthropology program, and we mean it. We do lots of team science with real-world applications -- in a fancy new building! -- and we like to get things done 🔥
October 1, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Penn State Anthropology is an integrative anthropology program, and we mean it. We do lots of team science with real-world applications -- in a fancy new building! -- and we like to get things done 🔥
📢 Come join us! Penn State Anthropology is hiring *two tenure-track assistant professors*, one in human reproductive ecology and one in archaeology. Here are just a few reasons why working at Penn State is awesome:
October 1, 2025 at 12:58 PM
📢 Come join us! Penn State Anthropology is hiring *two tenure-track assistant professors*, one in human reproductive ecology and one in archaeology. Here are just a few reasons why working at Penn State is awesome:
What if I told you that your friendships could help protect your local fisheries? In my op-ed in the Scranton Times-Tribune, I talk about how federal funding can support stewardship of US waterways - and how much taxpayers will lose from proposed cuts, including smart stewardship *and* $10bn a year.
June 20, 2025 at 2:23 PM
What if I told you that your friendships could help protect your local fisheries? In my op-ed in the Scranton Times-Tribune, I talk about how federal funding can support stewardship of US waterways - and how much taxpayers will lose from proposed cuts, including smart stewardship *and* $10bn a year.
🐄 People working with animals are most at risk of getting Rift, but you can get it from mosquitoes too 🦟 -- and for the 8-10% of people who get severe symptoms, some will lose their vision and others will die (2).
June 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM
🐄 People working with animals are most at risk of getting Rift, but you can get it from mosquitoes too 🦟 -- and for the 8-10% of people who get severe symptoms, some will lose their vision and others will die (2).
📢 On Friday, the NIH pulled funding for 10 centers monitoring infectious diseases around the globe -- diseases highly likely to cause the next pandemic (1). Let's look at just one of these diseases: Rift Valley Fever, monitored by my collaborators at WSU Global Health Kenya. 🧵
June 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM
📢 On Friday, the NIH pulled funding for 10 centers monitoring infectious diseases around the globe -- diseases highly likely to cause the next pandemic (1). Let's look at just one of these diseases: Rift Valley Fever, monitored by my collaborators at WSU Global Health Kenya. 🧵
🐄 People working with animals are most at risk of getting Rift, but you can get it from mosquitoes too 🦟 -- and for the 8-10% of people who get severe symptoms, some will lose their vision and others will die (2).
June 10, 2025 at 2:33 PM
🐄 People working with animals are most at risk of getting Rift, but you can get it from mosquitoes too 🦟 -- and for the 8-10% of people who get severe symptoms, some will lose their vision and others will die (2).
📢 Today I was supposed to be in DC, highlighting what the NSF Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences delivers to US taxpayers. NSF had one of the highest returns on investment (ROIs) of federal grantors 👏🏻 (1) and NSF SBE funded 63% of US social and psychological science research (2). 🧵
April 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM
📢 Today I was supposed to be in DC, highlighting what the NSF Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences delivers to US taxpayers. NSF had one of the highest returns on investment (ROIs) of federal grantors 👏🏻 (1) and NSF SBE funded 63% of US social and psychological science research (2). 🧵
What happens when you get social scientists together from across disciplines to discuss morality and divisions? We'll have a lot to say! Tune in Fri April 25 -- registration and details below 👇🏻
April 17, 2025 at 12:39 PM
What happens when you get social scientists together from across disciplines to discuss morality and divisions? We'll have a lot to say! Tune in Fri April 25 -- registration and details below 👇🏻
...Institut Jean Nicod (especially Daniel Nettle) and @fondationfyssen.bsky.social (especially @mariesoressi.bsky.social and Vincent Niochet) for hosting me for the last week -- for comparing notes, throwing around ideas, and enjoying the spring weather with me 🌸
April 10, 2025 at 2:24 PM
...Institut Jean Nicod (especially Daniel Nettle) and @fondationfyssen.bsky.social (especially @mariesoressi.bsky.social and Vincent Niochet) for hosting me for the last week -- for comparing notes, throwing around ideas, and enjoying the spring weather with me 🌸
What starts and maintains cooperation: individual decision-making, dyadic interactions, institutions that come along with group membership, network dynamics...? Always more to discuss! Thanks Paris 🇫🇷. Thanks especially to...
April 10, 2025 at 2:24 PM
What starts and maintains cooperation: individual decision-making, dyadic interactions, institutions that come along with group membership, network dynamics...? Always more to discuss! Thanks Paris 🇫🇷. Thanks especially to...
Social networks look different in rainy season for Bangladeshi communities with different livelihoods says Ian Harryman: networks contract as risk goes up, but farming community manages risk with local ties while market-integrated community manages *correlated* risk with non-local ties. #AABA2025
March 14, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Social networks look different in rainy season for Bangladeshi communities with different livelihoods says Ian Harryman: networks contract as risk goes up, but farming community manages risk with local ties while market-integrated community manages *correlated* risk with non-local ties. #AABA2025
Yes networks, including long-distance ties, can buffer collective risk (like environmental impacts) that strike whole communitie, says Joon Hwang, but inequality can undercut both network support generally as well as formation of long-distance ties - Joon speculates on why below. #AABA2025
March 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Yes networks, including long-distance ties, can buffer collective risk (like environmental impacts) that strike whole communitie, says Joon Hwang, but inequality can undercut both network support generally as well as formation of long-distance ties - Joon speculates on why below. #AABA2025
Humans spend tons of energy on our bodies relative to other mammals & put on weight easily: very high resting energy expenditure, high & variable active energy expenditure (Dan Lieberman, Ian Wallace), & a tiny bit of positive energy balance means weight gain, across populations (Mary Joy) #AABA2025
March 14, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Humans spend tons of energy on our bodies relative to other mammals & put on weight easily: very high resting energy expenditure, high & variable active energy expenditure (Dan Lieberman, Ian Wallace), & a tiny bit of positive energy balance means weight gain, across populations (Mary Joy) #AABA2025
It was hot both near the village and far away, and everyone experienced headaches and heightened stress -- but that 12 hours a day of heat exposure meant herders who moved with their animals experienced more heat-related illness, including dizziness and extreme sweating. ♨️
March 12, 2025 at 12:06 PM
It was hot both near the village and far away, and everyone experienced headaches and heightened stress -- but that 12 hours a day of heat exposure meant herders who moved with their animals experienced more heat-related illness, including dizziness and extreme sweating. ♨️
In the poster I'm sharing today at the Human Biology Association, we looked at data from 16 interviews and 90 surveys: during the last major drought, how were heat exposure and symptoms different depending on whether people went far with their animals or stayed closer to home? 🐪
March 12, 2025 at 12:06 PM
In the poster I'm sharing today at the Human Biology Association, we looked at data from 16 interviews and 90 surveys: during the last major drought, how were heat exposure and symptoms different depending on whether people went far with their animals or stayed closer to home? 🐪
This is the question we're answering in work with pastoralists in the desert in Northern Kenya 🌍. Some people are taking their animals farther away for longer than before, with 12 hours a day of heat exposure, while other people are trying different work like day labor or making charcoal.
March 12, 2025 at 12:06 PM
This is the question we're answering in work with pastoralists in the desert in Northern Kenya 🌍. Some people are taking their animals farther away for longer than before, with 12 hours a day of heat exposure, while other people are trying different work like day labor or making charcoal.
What would Darwin say if he was alive today? Nina Jablonski: he'd say: continue to do all of these things 👇🏻 and continue "to write and speak without fear."
Happy Darwin Day 2025 ❤️
Happy Darwin Day 2025 ❤️
February 14, 2025 at 9:14 PM
What would Darwin say if he was alive today? Nina Jablonski: he'd say: continue to do all of these things 👇🏻 and continue "to write and speak without fear."
Happy Darwin Day 2025 ❤️
Happy Darwin Day 2025 ❤️
After all, we may say “family first,” but many of us feel closer to a friend than even to a brother or sister…! The way we think about people in our group vs other groups is no different – our motivations and behavior depend on history, experiences, and new opportunities, to name a few. /12
February 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
After all, we may say “family first,” but many of us feel closer to a friend than even to a brother or sister…! The way we think about people in our group vs other groups is no different – our motivations and behavior depend on history, experiences, and new opportunities, to name a few. /12
So, are people paying attention to ethnic group membership when helping others? They are, but it’s more nuanced than us vs them - it’s “which group is in need” and “which group is cooperative.” This is also what I found in Bolivia in the past - people pay attention to need and cooperativeness. /10
February 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
So, are people paying attention to ethnic group membership when helping others? They are, but it’s more nuanced than us vs them - it’s “which group is in need” and “which group is cooperative.” This is also what I found in Bolivia in the past - people pay attention to need and cooperativeness. /10
On the coast, Afrocolombians preferentially left money for Embera in the experiment. Why? Everyone on the coast agreed Embera were more in need: the Afrocolombians thought so, the Embera thought so too. In other words, because of perceived need, them = us or them > us for leaving money. /8
February 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
On the coast, Afrocolombians preferentially left money for Embera in the experiment. Why? Everyone on the coast agreed Embera were more in need: the Afrocolombians thought so, the Embera thought so too. In other words, because of perceived need, them = us or them > us for leaving money. /8
The other community is inland, on an ethnic boundary between the two groups; there are few Embera in the community and they have less wealth than their Afrocolombian neighbors, BUT nearby there are more Embera and they are perceived to have some wealth and power. /7
February 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
The other community is inland, on an ethnic boundary between the two groups; there are few Embera in the community and they have less wealth than their Afrocolombian neighbors, BUT nearby there are more Embera and they are perceived to have some wealth and power. /7
So what are the relative effects of context and perceptions on us vs them behavior? Cody led a Colombia-based team to collect data on people’s networks: who is friends with whom, who helps whom - and in an experiment, who gives money, takes money, or pays to punish whom. /5
February 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
So what are the relative effects of context and perceptions on us vs them behavior? Cody led a Colombia-based team to collect data on people’s networks: who is friends with whom, who helps whom - and in an experiment, who gives money, takes money, or pays to punish whom. /5
Even among chimpanzees - the more “us vs them” of our two closest relatives - between-group aggression isn’t automatic: it depends on the relative size of the two groups and how unequal the resource distribution is. Inequality and majority-minority dynamics predict human intergroup behavior too. /4
February 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Even among chimpanzees - the more “us vs them” of our two closest relatives - between-group aggression isn’t automatic: it depends on the relative size of the two groups and how unequal the resource distribution is. Inequality and majority-minority dynamics predict human intergroup behavior too. /4