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Léo Fitouchi

@lfitouchi.bsky.social

950 followers 480 following 56 posts

Cognitive & evolutionary social scientist. Studying morality, religion, punishment, institutions. Research fellow at @iastoulouse.bsky.social @tse-fr.eu. PhD ENS Paris. Website: https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi/home

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · May 6

🧵New paper out in Cognition

Why do people moralize harmless carnal sins (e.g. gluttony, masturbation)?

@danielnettle.bsky.social & I find that these behaviors activate reciprocity-based moral judgment—no need for a distinct "purity" module.

50 days free link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1l18D2Hx2-...

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Eli Stark-Elster @eselster.bsky.social · 14d

New commentary out w/ @manvir.bsky.social
in Religion, Brain, and Behavior! We argue that social learning fails to explain three patterns in religious belief and practice: SBNR beliefs, strategic endorsement of beliefs, and religious experience. Check it out:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Strategy and experience required: Social learning cannot explain the varieties of supernatural belief

Published in Religion, Brain & Behavior (Ahead of Print, 2025)

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Le Monde @lemonde.fr · Aug 27

« Je voudrais un toit pour mon fils » : le nombre d’enfants à la rue avant la rentrée atteint un nouveau record

Le 7ᵉ baromètre de l’Unicef et de la Fédération des acteurs de la solidarité fait état de 2 159 enfants laissés sans solution d’hébergement au soir du 18 août, après que leur famille a réussi à joindre le 115.

www.lemonde.fr

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Cécile Sarabian @csarabian.bsky.social · Aug 22

🧠 What?! A meeting just on disgust?! Yes!!
📍 @iast.fr, France | 🗓 Dec 4–5, 2025
💥 Keynotes by Paul Rozin @upenn.edu, @cr-amo.bsky.social, Philip Powell @sheffielduni.bsky.social & Cindy Kam
🌍 From Psychology to Politics, Biology & beyond
🎓 Abstract submissions until Aug 31: forms.gle/QBmkUB3aLDjY...

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Catherine Molho @cmolho.bsky.social · Jul 2

📣 We are excited (or should we say disgusted?) to announce the conference 'Disgust across borders' at IAST! @iast.fr

🗓️ Join us on Dec 4 & 5 for two days full of disgust research across species and disciplines.

Registration and abstract submission are open (until Aug 31): forms.gle/QBmkUB3aLDjY...

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Devikrishna N B (She/Her) @devikrishna.bsky.social · Jun 25

I had the most incredible opportunity to attend the Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences at @tse-fr.eu and learn from @lfitouchi.bsky.social , @cmolho.bsky.social & @jorgeapenas.bsky.social on the "Evolution of Human Sociality"
Toulouse was warm and welcoming, so was TSE !!

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · Jun 16

Actually, we checked for halo effect by also measuring perceptions of warmth. In many conditions, people do not expect lower warmth to follow—only lower self-control or cooperativeness. So, as far as we can tell, it doesn't look like a halo effect.

Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias @ceciliapad.bsky.social · May 23

🚨NEW PAPER from the @eegcam.bsky.social!🚨I have never been as proud of something as of the work that finally we can share today: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... - we show how a climatically driven Pan African meta population model explains our species genetic and morphological diversity 🧬💀

Pan-African metapopulation model explains Homo sapiens genetic and morphological evolution

Emerging evidence has challenged the traditional view of a single-region origin for Homo sapiens, suggesting instead that our species arose and diversified across multiple geographically distinct popu...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · May 22

"progress in the social sciences is stymied by the widespread misconception that evolution and learning are opposing explanations for behavior... the 'evolution vs. learning' dichotomy is fallacious... explanatory partners rather than explanatory competitors" psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Paul Bloom @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social · May 20

"Shamanism" by @manvir.bsky.social is now out. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/730339.... It's a deep, original, and fun book—highly recommended. My blurb:

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Catherine Molho @cmolho.bsky.social · May 19

Very happy to be giving a talk at my favorite colloquium series! Tune in if you're interested in prosociality, willful ignorance, or cross-cultural research.

Simon Columbus @simoncolumbus.bsky.social · May 19

This weeks's Cooperation Colloquium:

Catherine Molho @cmolho.bsky.social

Guilt drives prosocial behavior across countries

Date: May 23
Time: 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9 am ET (NYC)

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

Abstract: Influential theories have proposed that impersonal prosociality varies across human societies. At the same time, different societies may rely on distinct mechanisms—guilt and internalized norms versus shame and external pressures—to promote prosocial behavior. We examine these mechanisms in a pre-registered experiment with 7,978 participants across 20 culturally diverse countries. Participants made monetary allocation decisions between themselves and strangers. To examine how guilt and shame affected prosociality, we introduced two variations to this standard decision-making task. First, to activate guilt, we varied information about the consequences of participants’ decisions (full versus hidden). Second, to activate shame, we varied the observability of participants’ decisions (public versus private). Additionally, we measured guilt- and shame-proneness at the individual and country levels. We find robust evidence for guilt-driven prosociality and willful ignorance across all countries. Allowing individuals to avoid information about the consequences of their actions substantially decreases prosociality. Guilt-prone, rather than shame-prone, individuals are more responsive to the presence of information about the negative consequences of their actions. In contrast, we find that making decisions observable among strangers has negligible effects on prosociality. Our study provides a first comprehensive investigation of how guilt and shame affect prosociality around the world.

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Thom Scott-Phillips @thomscottphillips.bsky.social · May 17

- Wikipedia is a global, free to access encyclopaedia of knowledge
- Universities are full of experts on all sorts of niche topics
- Those experts are under no career incentives to share their knowledge on Wikipedia

I feel that something has gone terribly wrong somewhere

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Matthias Michel @matthiasmichel.bsky.social · May 16

You can now submit a commentary on our paper here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal.... We're very much looking forward to reading your commentaries and discussing our hypothesis with you!

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Laith Al-Shawaf @laithalshawaf.bsky.social · May 15

Hi friends! I'm now on Bluesky. Looking forward to reading your news & updates.

If you're interested in my work, consider following this account. I write about science, philosophy, & culture in peer-reviewed academic journals and popular press magazines.

www.laithalshawaf.com/popular-scie...

www.laithalshawaf.com

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · May 12

and @danielnettle.bsky.social!
(thanks for reposting!)

Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Bastian Jaeger @bxjaeger.bsky.social · May 12

Harmless bodily pleasures are moralized because they are perceived as reducing self-control and cooperativeness @lfitouchi.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

IASToulouse @iast.fr · May 9

🦋 Ever wondered what happens when curious minds collide? The Friends of IAST starter kit is now on Bluesky! Fellows, researchers, and thinkers are ready to share ideas, spark debates, and explore new perspectives.

👋Join us—this is just the beginning! #FriendsofIAST#starterkit
go.bsky.app/5mQmnLF 👇

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · Mar 26

🚨Preprint alert 🚨

Forager food-sharing is often portrayed as “a positive insistence on equality” (Woodburn) or an “instinct” to equalise inequalities (Fehr). A new paper with @kris-smith.bsky.social, exploring Hadza reallocation decisions, challenges this view. 1/10 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The 'I' in Egalitarianism: Hadza Hunter-Gatherers Averse to Inequality Primarily when Personally Unfavourable

Many anthropologists and economists contend that humans are characterized by strong, universal, other-regarding equality preferences with deep evolutionary root

papers.ssrn.com

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

IASToulouse @iast.fr · Apr 17

📢 We're now on Bluesky!

Follow us for insights on:
🧠 Interdisciplinary research
🎤 Talks, workshops & conferences
🎧 Podcasts
🧐 Science outreach

#Science #Research #Interdisciplinary #IAST #Toulouse #AcademicLife

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Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · May 9

"good sociological theories must be compatible with good psychological theories, which in turn must be compatible with good biological theories, which must be compatible with good chemical theories, which must be compatible with good theory from physics"

What makes a good social science theory, and why the evolutionary model of the actor is one - Theory and Society

This paper presents the rules of science in general as the rules of social science and describes what makes a good theory in both science generally and social science specifically. We argue that good ...

link.springer.com

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · May 6

merci le reuf!

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · May 6

@cognitionjournal.bsky.social

Reposted by Léo Fitouchi

Daniel Nettle @danielnettle.bsky.social · May 6

New paper from @lfitouchi.bsky.social:
Why do people moralize harmless bodily pleasures?
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Harmless bodily pleasures are moralized because they are perceived as reducing self-control and cooperativeness

Why do many people morally condemn unrestrained indulgence in bodily pleasures—such as gluttony, masturbation, and drinking alcohol—even when these be…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · May 6

In sum, even if intrinsically harmless, indulgence in carnal pleasures activates cognitive adaptations for reciprocal cooperation.

This challenges the claim that their moralization requires positing moral mechanisms beyond reciprocity.

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · May 6

4. We tried to disentangle signalling beliefs (that indulgence *reveals* low self-control) from erosion beliefs (that indulgence *causally reduces* self-control).

We asked participants to predict the outcome of an experiment manipulating indulgence. Results were similar—suggesting a causal belief.

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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · May 6

3. The perception that bodily pleasures reduce self-control and cooperativeness predicts puritanical moral judgments.
The more people see indulgence as decreasing self-control & coop—and restraint as increasing them—the more they morally condemn bodily pleasures.

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