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Alex Mesoudi

@alexmesoudi.com

1.9K followers 380 following 140 posts

Cultural evolution researcher at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus), UK. President of the Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social Website: alexmesoudi.com

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Sociology 29%

Psychology 21%

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Reposted by Rebecca Sear, Alex Mesoudi

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 8d

ACE Teaching Innovation Awards empower scholars to incorporate high-quality cultural evolution course materials into their teaching. This is a great opportunity for those from majority-world countries and ECR academics, but everyone can apply!

culturalevolutionsociety.org/grants-and-a...

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

Darren Croft @darrencroft.bsky.social · 16d

We are hiring - PDRA position exploring how information access shapes social dynamics in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT336/p...

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

David Garzón Ramos @dgarzonramos.com · 23d

🚨 Last days to submit! 🚨

Join the Workshop on Cultural Evolution of Planet X at @alife2025.bsky.social (Kyoto, Oct 7).

We welcome abstracts on cultural evolution and emergent culture in artificial systems. Work presented elsewhere too!

📅 Deadline: Sept 20
🔗 sites.google.com/view/planetx...

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, John Kennedy, Ruth Mace , and 5 more Joanna Bryson, John Kennedy, Ruth Mace, Alistair Munro, Charles West, Paul E. Smaldino, Alex Mesoudi, Dean Eckles

Bret Beheim @babeheim.bsky.social · 23d

How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!

400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!

Miyagawa Shuntei's 1898 painting, "Playing Go (Japanese Chess)"

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Hugo Mercier, Rebecca Sear

Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 24d

Abstract submission now open for the next Cultural Evolution Society conference in Rabat, Morocco next May @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social @ces2026.bsky.social

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 26d

We are delighted to announce that the CES2026 conference website is now live! We invite you to submit your presentation proposals using the link on the webpage, deadline November 16th:
airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique - FGSES

airess.fgses-um6p.ma

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Reposted by Ruth Mace, Simon J. Greenhill, Nathan Nunn , and 5 more Ruth Mace, Simon J. Greenhill, Nathan Nunn, Rebecca Sear, Paul E. Smaldino, Alex Mesoudi, Alberto Acerbi, David W. Lawson

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 26d

The count down starts for #CESRabat! Follow @ces2026.bsky.social and join us May 11-13 next year for an exciting meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

Massive thanks to the #CESRabat organising committee:
Sarah Alami (co-chair)
Mathieu Charbonneau (co-chair)
Zachary Garfield
Edmond Seabright

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Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Hugo Mercier, Nathan Nunn , and 1 more Simon J. Greenhill, Hugo Mercier, Nathan Nunn, Alex Mesoudi

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 26d

Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique - FGSES

airess.fgses-um6p.ma

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

Kenji Itao @kenjiitao.bsky.social · 28d

🔔ACE Seminar:
We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Siyang Luo from Sun Yat-sen University!

🗓 Mon, Sep 22 at 7:00 PM JST (18:00 (Perth/Singapore/Beijing), 19:00 (Tokyo/Seoul), 20:00 (Sydney))
✉️ To receive the Zoom link, send a blank email to: [email protected]

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Reposted by Hugo Mercier, Rebecca Sear, Paul E. Smaldino , and 2 more Hugo Mercier, Rebecca Sear, Paul E. Smaldino, Alex Mesoudi, Lusine Grigoryan

Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 28d

@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/...

Fees and Funding - Durham University

www.durham.ac.uk

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

Joshua Conrad Jackson @joshcjackson.bsky.social · Sep 5

@helenamiton.bsky.social and I have a new paper out:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Past theories focus on how we evolve complex technologies (jet engines), but neglect cultural innovations that help us operate these technologies (pilot checklist)

Paper has tons of examples and new theory!

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Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · Sep 2

Friends and colleagues in the Berlin area:

Next week (8-12 Sep) I will be visiting the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung (WZB) (Berlin Social Science Centre) @wzb.bsky.social

Let me know if you'd like to meet for a coffee / drink / currywurst

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Ruth Mace, Alex Mesoudi

Jeremy Kendal @jeremykendal.bsky.social · Aug 27

Physical copies of this 71-chapter tome now exist. Do encourage your library to buy a copy…also doubles as excellent door stop! Co-edited with Jamie Tehrani and @rachkendal.bsky.social. @oxunipress.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social

The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution hard copy

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

Simon Columbus @simoncolumbus.bsky.social · Aug 26

⚡ Autumn 2025 Cooperation Colloquia ⚡

We are excited to announce the next run of Cooperation Colloquia. With @talbotmandrews.bsky.social, @setayeshradkani.bsky.social, @kris-smith.bsky.social, @alexmesoudi.com, & more.

Every second Friday, 15:00 CE(S)T

Sign up here: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

Speaker list for the Autumn 2025 Cooperation Colloquia:
2025-09-12 | Doruk İriş (Sogang University)
2025-09-26 | Talbot M. Andrews (Cornell University)
2025-10-10 | Setayesh Radkani (MIT)
2025-10-24 | Christian Ruff (University of Zürich)
2025-11-07 | Bianca Beersma (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
2025-11-21 | Kristopher M. Smith (Washington State University)
2025-12-05 | Alex Mesoudi (University of Exeter)

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Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear , and 1 more Simon J. Greenhill, Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear, Alex Mesoudi

Tim Waring @twaring.bsky.social · Aug 21

🧠 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_...

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Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Alex Mesoudi

michael chimento @mchimento.bsky.social · Aug 13

📣 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... 🧪

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Reposted by Rebecca Sear

Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · Aug 12

"Trusting the experts" is not just a feature of modern science and democracy, it's a feature of our evolved capacity for culture, and a major driver of human cultural evolution more broadly.

For more, see this paper called, coincidentally, "Trusting the experts".

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

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Reposted by Nathan Nunn, Rebecca Sear, Alex Mesoudi

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · Aug 8

We are pleased to announce our newly elected committee members of the Cultural Evolution Society:

Minhua Yan @minhuayan.bsky.social
Helena Miton @helenamiton.bsky.social
Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social &
Mason Youngblood @masonyoungblood.bsky.social

Welcome and congratulations!!

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Reposted by Rebecca Sear, Alex Mesoudi

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · Aug 1

We're thrilled to announce upcoming ACE Teaching Innovation Awards, made possible by Eric & Peggy Peterson.

This aims to empower teachers through access to course materials in the CES Teaching Library. Selected applicants will also be able to consult with winners of the ACE Course Design Awards.

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi, Bill Thompson

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · Mar 4

We are excited to advertise the Asian Cultural Evolution (ACE) seminar series! It's organized by Kenji Itao, Xinyue Pan & Wataru Toyokawa, and seminars will take place on the third Tuesday of odd-numbered months at 19:00 JST (18:00 Perth/Singapore/Beijing, 19:00 Tokyo/Seoul, 20:00 Sydney).

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · Mar 20

Meta pirated at least 101 of my books and articles, and tens of millions of others.
open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...

Meta pirated at least 101 of my books and articles, and tens of millions of others

And they knew perfectly well what they were doing

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

Charley Wu | hiring PhDs/Postdocs @thecharleywu.bsky.social · Apr 25

🙌 Hot off the presses @natcomms.nature.com! We created a custom #Minecraft environment to study a long-standing puzzle in cognitive science:
How do humans flexibly adapt their individual and social learning strategies in dynamic, realistic situations? Check it out 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵👇

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

Lars Chittka @larschittka.bsky.social · Apr 30

I'm super happy that Michelle Maldonado and I have both won awards for "best acting" in Osseily Hanna's film The Last Bee, at the Amsterdam New Cinema Film Festival

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi, David W. Lawson

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · May 14

📢 CES launches Advancing Cultural Evolution (ACE) Course Design Awards! 🎉 $4000 award + global impact for your cultural evolution course materials. Course must be college/grad level with 10+ hrs content.

Application link: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... #CulturalEvolution #Education #Grants

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi

PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · Jun 11

Cumulative cultural evolution is facilitated by relatively indiscriminate information sharing rather than reputation-based partner choice: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jt8fg_v1

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Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Alex Mesoudi

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · Jul 25

The CES officer elections have now launched! Active members of the society should have received an email from Election Runner with the title "Cultural Evolution Society Elections 2025", so pls check your inbox. Voting closes on 29th July at 23:59 BST.
culturalevolutionsociety.org/news-and-eve...

Executive Committee voting now open! - Cultural Evolution Society

culturalevolutionsociety.org

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Reposted by Alex Mesoudi, Alberto Acerbi

Björn Lindström @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social · Jul 23

Thrilled that our paper on the mechanisms underlying social learning strategies is out! First big paper from my @erc.europa.eu & @kawresearch.bsky.social funded group. More to come! I'm currently looking to recruit two post docs, get in touch if you find this line of research interesting.

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · Jul 23

Through experiments and simulations, this study shows how individuals learn to learn from others, dynamically shaping the processes involved in cultural evolution. @davidschultner.bsky.social @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social
@lucasmolleman.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...