Marc Malmdorf Andersen
banner
ndersen.bsky.social
Marc Malmdorf Andersen
@ndersen.bsky.social
Cognitive scientist, associate professor at Aarhus University.
Predictive Processing, Emotion, Play, Recreational Fear, Cognitive Development.
Pinned
🧟‍♂️🚨 Publication alert! 🚨🧟‍♀️

Holy moly, I'm thrilled to announce our new paper in Emotion! We explored how recreational fear, physiological synchrony, and social closeness interact in a high-intensity haunted house setting. 1/5 🧵

Link: psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
I'm still collecting children's folklore for my next podcast theme, and I'm getting some amazing responses - monsters, urban legends, games, even a Tin God! Still time to add yours to this Google Form: forms.gle/D8mLW7q2um5Z...
Collecting Children's Lore!
February is going to be all about Children's Lore, which is defined as the folklore created, shared, and maintained by children. So it's not folklore about children, but rather spread by them! A lot...
forms.gle
January 27, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Really great new paper using agent-based modelling to show how an exploratory childhood can lead to innovation in the population at large.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 22, 2026 at 6:53 PM
"Combat both US tech capitulation and Enshittification at once."

Thanks for these overviews @hansonmark.bsky.social and @parismarx.com 🙏
Two weeks ago I started:

- 🇳🇴 Vivaldi > Chrome 🇺🇸
- 🇨🇭 ProtonMail > Gmail 🇺🇸
- 🇨🇭 ProtonDrive > Dropbox 🇺🇸
- 🇬🇧 Anytime Player > American Podcast apps 🇺🇸
- 🇫🇷 Deezer > Spotify (basically 🇺🇸)
- 🇬🇧 CityMapper > Google Maps 🇺🇸

It was easy. Most have a "import all settings and pick up where you left off" function
January 25, 2026 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
🚨 🚨 Publication alert🚨 🚨
Great work led by the brilliant @drelenamiu.bsky.social.
Using agent-based models, we show that age-structured learning (kids explore broadly; adults refine/exploit) boosts long-term cultural payoffs vs. using the same strategies in random order. shorturl.at/rdlhv
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 22, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
New study from @ndersen.bsky.social and colleagues combines two of my favorite things - haunted houses and physiological synchrony research. "Scared together: heart rate synchrony and social closeness in a high-intensity horror setting." 👻❤️⚡❤️🧟
January 18, 2026 at 1:48 PM
Aaand, we're off! The annual Recreational Fear workshop “When Fear Is Fun 2025” kicks off with Corinna Perchtold-Stefan. Corinna is enlightening us on why the true crime genre has such a massive gender difference, in favour of women consumers. Stay tuned! @aiasdk.bsky.social @au.dk
December 12, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
When we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵
Representational Momentum Transcends Motion
Dillon Plunkett & Jorge Morales (2025) Psychological Science
subjectivitylab.org
December 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
High-level visual surprise is rapidly integrated during perceptual inference!

🚨 New paper 🚨 out now in @cp-iscience.bsky.social with @paulapena.bsky.social and @mruz.bsky.social

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Summary 🧵 below 👇
Rapid computation of high-level visual surprise
Health sciences
www.cell.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
🫀 New preprint alert! 🌆
Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Physical proximity, social familiarity, and acoustic environment modulate heart rate synchrony in real-world social interactions
Human social behaviour unfolds in complex real-world environments shaped by social and acoustic factors, yet markers of social engagement and connection remain elusive. Interpersonal physiological syn...
www.biorxiv.org
December 7, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Not only many adults, but the vast majority of children too, from infancy through the teenage years, enjoy “recreational fear”—activities that are both scary and fun—new Danish study finds, with the nature and context of the activities evolving with age:

buff.ly/AAfh2mt
November 5, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Come join the wonderful CogSci dep at Aarhus Uni, Denmark! Fantastic students, wonderful colleagues, and great work/life balance! We are looking for applicants with teaching experience in the field of computational modelling of cognitive and/or social processes.
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Full Professor of Cognitive Science - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at School of Communication and Culture - Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Dept. of, Aarhus University
international.au.dk
November 27, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Come join the workshop on Recreational Fear at @aiasdk.bsky.social, @au.dk!
🎃👻 When Fear Is Fun 2025 🎃👻
Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12!

Free participation, registration required.
🔗 Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/en/recreatio...
🔗 Register: event.au.dk/events/when-...
November 21, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)
November 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
🎃👻 When Fear Is Fun 2025 🎃👻
Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12!

Free participation, registration required.
🔗 Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/en/recreatio...
🔗 Register: event.au.dk/events/when-...
November 21, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
In need of horror-based scholarship? I re-FEAR you to the workshop below....
🎃👻 When Fear Is Fun 2025 🎃👻
Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12!

Free participation, registration required.
🔗 Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/en/recreatio...
🔗 Register: event.au.dk/events/when-...
November 21, 2025 at 1:55 PM
🎃👻 When Fear Is Fun 2025 🎃👻
Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12!

Free participation, registration required.
🔗 Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/en/recreatio...
🔗 Register: event.au.dk/events/when-...
November 21, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Everything is a distraction from this.
‘Change course now’: humanity has missed 1.5C climate target, says UN head
Exclusive: ‘Devastating consequences’ now inevitable but emissions cuts still vital, says António Guterres in sole interview before Cop30
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇
October 9, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Marc Malmdorf Andersen
somehow I missed this!

Dopamine represents a domain-general teaching signal:

www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Striatal dopamine signals errors in prediction across different informational domains
Dopamine reflects prediction errors not only about reward but also about valueless stimuli, challenging many current theories.
www.science.org
September 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM