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Dimitris Xygalatas

@xygalatas.bsky.social

510 followers 380 following 44 posts

Experimental anthropologist, cognitive scientist, dad, author of Ritual: How seemingly senseless acts make life worth living

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Psychology 33%

Sociology 22%

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · 2d

What happens next? Will you fund the winner?

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · 2d

I wonder whether this is true for all or at least the majority of contexts. Do most people think more favorably of Turkish, Chinese, Greek, or Canadian people than of their respective governments?

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · 8d

My obituary for one of my childhood (and adulthood) heroes, Jane Goodall. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-...

Jane Goodall Changed How We See Ourselves

She spent her life among chimpanzees, but in the process, Jane Goodall transformed our understanding of what it means to be human.

www.psychologytoday.com

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · 22d

@davidwengrow.bsky.social’s talk was so packed at the Brain Bar today was so packed I literally couldn’t fit through the door - I had to pull some special favors to enter from backstage

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Aug 8

But it gets more nuanced over time...

Reposted by Márk E. Hauber, Dimitris Xygalatas, Jill A. Jacobson

Josh de Leeuw @joshdeleeuw.bsky.social · Jul 29

Vassar College is hiring a tenure track assistant professor in cognitive science. vassar.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Vassar...

I'll be at #CogSci2025 - happy to chat about the position and life at Vassar.

Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, Tenure Track

Department Cognitive Science Vassar College is dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees and welcomes applications from individuals of all backgrounds. Deci...

vassar.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Dimitris Xygalatas

Noema Magazine @noemamag.com · Jul 3

“Could mundane, often thankless tasks — cycling, tree-planting, recycling — be reframed not as chores, but as rituals of care & connection that inspire a deeper commitment to environmental stewardship?”

— @xygalatas.bsky.social

To Save Nature, Make It Sacred | NOEMA

Beyond science and policy, the key to protecting Earth’s most vulnerable ecosystems may lie in the human capacity to treat certain places as sacred.

www.noemamag.com

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Jun 9

Using heart rate data to measure emotional synchrony, we show how shared rituals involving chants, flares, and anticipation—bind people emotionally.
Even the team bus driver synced with the crowd.
This isn't just sports. It’s collective effervescence!
🔥📈❤️

a crowd of people are standing in a stadium with a banner that says ' npa ' on it .

ALT: a crowd of people are standing in a stadium with a banner that says ' npa ' on it .

media.tenor.com

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Jun 9

Just out in PNAS!
Our new study finds that a pregame ritual created stronger emotional synchrony among football fans than the game itself.
@uconnresearch.bsky.social
Read: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
#Science #Rituals #Emotion #Football #CollectiveBehavior

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Jun 7

magazine.uconn.edu/2025/06/05/a...

All Together Now

That connection you feel with fellow fans at the game? It’s even more powerful than you think.

magazine.uconn.edu

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 22

Today, the UK has decided to comply with international law and hand the last British colony in Africa, the Chagos islands, back to Mauritius. On this historic occasion, we were honored to meet with the Chagossian community and share their excitement and hope for a better future.

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 22

bringing the lab into the field...
@uconnresearch.bsky.social

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 19

Can you explain the grounds for this objection, Rohan? In fields like anthropology, including key informants as participants is becoming increasingly common. Why is that problematic?

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 14

But critically, our results introduce a key nuance to these models, which highlights a self-directed function where the experience of discomfort serves not only as a public display but also as an internal self-signal of devotion, reinforcing moral alignment with the ingroup.

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 14

This aligns with parochial altruism models positing that altruism and intergroup bias co-evolve to promote within-group cooperation and between-group competition, and evolutionary theories suggesting that effortful ritual acts function as costly signals of commitment to shared beliefs or identities

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 14

The more discomfort people experienced, the more they gave to an ingroup (Catholic) charity compared to a neutral one (Red Cross). and this effect was stronger for locals, and those identifying more strongly as Catholics.

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 14

As 250,000 gathered in the Vatican to pay their respects, they had to endure queues of up to 8 hours under the hot sun, with limited access to shade, rest, water, and sanitation. After assessing how much discomfort they experienced, we looked at charitable giving to two causes

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · May 14

Check out our new pre-print, reporting findings that the cost of attending Pope Francis's funeral predicts parochial altruism, supporting theories of self-signaling osf.io/preprints/os...

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Apr 30

Very excited to see this panel on my book on #Ritual in JCSR, with contributions from an amazing group of scholars in the #Cog&EvoScienceOfReligion! journal.equinoxpub.com/JCSR/index

Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion

Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion is the official journal of the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion (IACSR).

journal.equinoxpub.com

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Apr 24

www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

Prediction Beyond Belief: Rituals as Active Inference Mechanisms: The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access

We’re here to help

www.tandfonline.com

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Apr 17

This, of course, is a straw man argument that no one actually makes. A much more pertinent question is, what if most people are biased in subtle but important ways, from the way they see themselves to the way their memory works?

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Apr 15

Testing wearable equipment by dancing at the Experimental Anthropology Lab. Who said science is not fun?

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Apr 10

Our lab is featured in several parts of the latest National Geographic special issue on religion. Here, our grad student, Sevgi Demiroglu, talks about her fieldwork in Toraja, Indonesia
@uconnresearch.bsky.social
@uconn.bsky.social

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Apr 6

no way!

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Apr 3

The only humans in the British Indian Ocean Territory (which is not a country) are the personnel of a US military base. They are imposing tariffs on themselves!

Dr Alex Cruikshanks @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · Apr 2

Trump is imposing a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands.

The Heard and McDonald Islands are uninhabited.

Reposted by Carl Henrik Knutsen, Jamie Morgan, Dimitris Xygalatas , and 2 more Carl Henrik Knutsen, Jamie Morgan, Dimitris Xygalatas, Frank C. Thames, Charlotte Sieber-Gasser

Dr Alex Cruikshanks @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · Apr 2

Trump is imposing a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands.

The Heard and McDonald Islands are uninhabited.

860 4.3K 13K

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Mar 31

I asked Chat GPT: "based on what you know about me make an image about what you think my life looks like". I think our concerns about AI taking over may have been exaggerated...

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Mar 29

I'd print that as a poster and hang it on my office door!

Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Mar 24

How do people band together in the face of disaster? See our latest paper in Nature Scientific Reports, led by our graduate student Sevgi Demiroglu!
shorturl.at/boQ3d
@uconnresearch.bsky.social

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Dimitris Xygalatas @xygalatas.bsky.social · Mar 17

The main thing to know in this context is that their prices increased 100%-200% within a few months