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Rebecca Sear

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Rebecca Sear, is a British anthropologist and academic, who specialises in evolutionary anthropology, demography and human behavioural ecology. Since 2024,… more

H-index: 43
Psychology 45%
Sociology 15%
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by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
In work on relationships between evolutionary psychology & the manosphere, it's been suggested the relationship may be two-way. Ideas from ev psych inform the manosphere but also the manosphere may influence ev psych. Wonder if the idea that "women are the protected sex" is an example of the latter
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by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
“The idea that humans evolved to be protective & sensitive to harm directed towards women appears increasingly popular in evolutionary psych [but] ethnographic evidence conflict with this perspective, [which seems] rooted in contemporary WEIRD values rather than an evolved psychological mechanism”
Did humans evolve to 'protect' women?
Ethnography complicates a convenient narrative
open.substack.com
1 1 9

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Jean‐Baptiste André, David W. Lawson

ehbea.bsky.social
EHBEA is looking for new PRESIDENT and SECRETARY for 2026-2029! 👀

If you know of anybody who could represent EHBEA, nominate them as president!

If you know with good organisational skills, nominate them as secretary!

DEADLINE: 16/12/2026

HERE IS THE FORM 👇

docs.google.com/document/d/1...
EHBEACommitteeNominationForm_Pres_Sec.doc
EHBEA Committee 2026-2029: Nomination Form The EHBEA Steering Committee is calling for nominations for the following open committee positions for 2026-2029. You are invited to nominate one or more c...
docs.google.com
11 8

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear

annalshumanbio.bsky.social
🗣️COMMENTARY

A timely piece for AHB addresses the current public health divide in the U.S., highlighting the need to ‘create space for dialogue rather than continued confrontation’, and how academics can better reach communities their research impacts

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Whose health? Whose truth? Navigating the “Make America Healthy Again” – public health divide
Published in Annals of Human Biology (Vol. 52, No. 1, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
2 4

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Will Jennings, Kai Arzheimer , and 9 more

tevoelker.bsky.social
New paper out with @dasalgon.bsky.social: “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream” doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 #openaccess in @ejprjournal.bsky.social🧵
Abstract
5 170 360

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Martin J. Smith

lizziegadd.bsky.social
Adding my voice to the chorus battling to retain an increased focus on people, culture, and environment in the next REF... wonkhe.com/blogs/the-ba...
The battle for people, culture and environment
Lizzie Gadd makes the case for embracing People, Culture and Environment and sets out why reverting to REF 2021 would be a mistake
wonkhe.com
8 15

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Lisa W. Fazio, Erol Akçay , and 2 more

jeremymberg.bsky.social
I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

1/14
jeremymberg.github.io
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by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
George Monbiot on Steven Pinker’s book Enlightenment Now: “Under-researched and over-claiming, deferring to authority rather than data, sloppy and derivative, Pinker insults the Enlightenment principles he claims to defend”
georgemonbiot.bsky.social
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 26d
Tell me about it. I've had his number for a while, on other matters: www.monbiot.com/2018/03/09/c...
Contrary to Reason
Steven Pinker claims to champion Enlightenment values. But his latest book is an affront to them
www.monbiot.com
2 18 120

by Rebecca Sear — Reposted by: Joanna Bryson, David W. Lawson

rebeccasear.bsky.social
If one man marries two women, another man must go unmarried, right? No. Demography matters. If sex ratios are skewed towards women, then polygyny can exist alongside universal marriage for men (who want to marry women). If only more people understood demography 😊
hggaddy.bsky.social
Hampton Gaddy @hggaddy.bsky.social · 1d
🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market | PNAS
There is a widespread belief, in both the scholarly literature and the popular press, that polygyny prevents large numbers of men from marrying by ...
www.pnas.org
2 10 35

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear

drboothroyd.bsky.social
Say you were looking for a free, online textbook to use in your teaching of #EvoPSych, Human Behavioural Ecology, Cultural Evolution (or all combined)... which of these titles would tempt you most?

(see post below...)

#EHBEA
#HBES
#CulturalTransmisison
#HigherEduction
#TLHE
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Reposted by: Rebecca Sear

hggaddy.bsky.social
Even though the demography is clear, the idea that polygamy is unsustainable and is the root of male-vs-male violence is super influential in political science, incel groups (⚠️), and theories about the evolution of monogamy. In the article, we talk through all three sets of discourse (13/14)
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Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Philip N. Cohen, Cameron Campbell , and 4 more

hggaddy.bsky.social
🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market | PNAS
There is a widespread belief, in both the scholarly literature and the popular press, that polygyny prevents large numbers of men from marrying by ...
www.pnas.org
3 48 120

by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
The conflation of academic freedom with free speech has predictable consequences. A Cambridge academic who made scientifically indefensible claims has had complaints against him dismissed on the grounds that his claims were "lawful free speech". This doesn't end well for science.
Uni clears don accused of ‘abhorrent racism’
The University's internal investigation launched last year has dismissed all complaints against Nathan Cofnas, and found his ideas 'represented lawful free speech'
www.varsity.co.uk
3 8

by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Unfortunately, new legislation initiated by the previous UK government on free speech in higher education conflates freedom of speech and academic freedom

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Amia Srinivasan · Cancelled: Can I speak freely?
Most of us would find it horrible to be told that we aren’t worth engaging with, that our views are socially...
www.lrb.co.uk
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by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Cites this excellent piece: "A university isn’t a town square where anyone has the right to say anything they like... Universities contribute to society not by producing more speech, but by producing better speech. Our business is quality, not quantity"

academicmatters.ca/free-speech-...
Free speech and the battle for the university - Academic Matters
At the University of Waterloo, a controversial talk had the faculty association looking for creative ways to respond. How did the faculty [...]
academicmatters.ca
1 6 7

by Rebecca Sear — Reposted by: Joanna Bryson

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Thoughtful piece on the distinction between freedom of speech and academic freedom, and how the former is being mobilised to erode the latter:

"Under freedom of speech, the distinction between true and false is irrelevant. Academic freedom is about seeking truth or producing better knowledge"
Knowledges from the classroom | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online
Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, ...
www.aup-online.com
1 12 21

by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
"We test the "social capital buffer" hypothesis, which posits that greater social connectedness promotes risk-taking by buffering against negative outcomes [Bangladesh]....findings reveal that social capital does not uniformly promote or constrain risk-taking"

doi.org/10.31235/osf...
OSF
doi.org
6

by Margot C. Finn — Reposted by: Rebecca Sear

eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'Mann, whose book Science Under Siege with co-author Peter Hotez was published last month, urged scientists in the US to speak out against the political pressures on research and higher education, even if there is a risk to their careers'.
resprofnews.bsky.social
Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 2d
‘US anti-science stance poses global existential threat’.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-worl...
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Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Melinda Baldwin

cmicomms.bsky.social
🎙️ Just published: Communicable E37: 'Peer review is broken'

Hosted by @angelahuttner.bsky.social & @anniejoseph.bsky.social

w/ invited guests: Melinda Baldwin @mbaldwin.bsky.social & Serge Horbach

Listen on Communicable:

#IDSky #Clinmicro #MedSky #peerreview #AI
Communicable E37: 'Peer review is broken'
Contrary to popular belief, peer review has only recently become an...
share.transistor.fm
1 7 10

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Margot C. Finn

cyrilpedia.bsky.social
,While these articles and blog posts have appeared in different media ...() they all share commonalities, such as similar introductions, trying to discredit the targeted scientists’ expertise, or question their neutrality or integrity, and seem to be generated by chatbots.'
Scientists targeted by dark PR tactics: Several academic scientists critical of de-extinction projects have become the targets of anonymous smear articles and weaponized copyright infringement claims:...
EMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.
www.embopress.org
16 28

by Rebecca Sear — Reposted by: Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
On 'The Politicization’ of Fertility to Achieve Non-Demographic Objectives', written in 1997: "The use of fertility (& population growth) related arguments to justify policies on matters which cannot be proved to be related to fertility without intervening assumptions is at least as old as Malthus"
The ‘Politicization’ of Fertility to Achieve Non-Demographic Objectives
Published in Population Studies: A Journal of Demography (Vol. 51, No. 1, 1997)
www.tandfonline.com
5 11

by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
"rather than employing measures developed for different Majority World contexts, it is crucial to construct more context-specific measures of caregiver responsiveness, that incorporate local norms, to facilitate the development of parenting support tools for vulnerable children around the world"
A Contextual Approach to Characterizing Caregiver Responsiveness in a Rural Area of The Gambia
Interactions with caregivers play a crucial role in early development. While most of the world's children live in Majority World countries, research on caregiving predominantly uses measures develope....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
1 7

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Timnit Gebru, Mark Rubin , and 3 more

olivia.science
New preprint 🌟 Psychology is core to cognitive science, and so it is vital we preserve it from harmful frames. @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I use our psych and computer science expertise to analyse and craft:

Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

🧵 1/
Cover page of Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1 Table 1 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1 Table 2 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1
8 97 240

by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
This link isn't paywalled www.varsity.co.uk/news/30360
Uni clears don accused of ‘abhorrent racism’
The University's internal investigation launched last year has dismissed all complaints against Nathan Cofnas, and found his ideas 'represented lawful free speech'
www.varsity.co.uk
1 2

by Rebecca Sear

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Posting without comment
thetimes.com
The Times & Sunday Times @thetimes.com · 5d
Investigation clears Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked after saying that ‘in a meritocracy’ black people would not hold prestigious positions
Cambridge says academic’s ‘offensive’ race views were free speech
Investigation clears Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked after saying that ‘in a meritocracy’ black people would not hold prestigious positions
www.thetimes.com
6 8 16

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear

hetanshah.bsky.social
Given policy interest in communities we have published a joint @britishacademy.bsky.social / @nuffieldfoundation.org report on the lessons from a series of funded projects on building resilience through place, trust, connection, & community capacity
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/buildin...
Building resilience in UK communities – final report from the British Academy and Nuffield Foundation
The British Academy and the Nuffield Foundation have today published the final report from their joint Understanding Communities programme, launched in 2022 to inform policy and practice on how commun...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
1 6 10

by Karen Benjamin Guzzo — Reposted by: Rebecca Sear, Lesley A. Hall

karenguzzo.bsky.social
Childlessness is stratified by education - but not in the way it used to be. Childlessness is higher, & growing, among the less educated, while childlessness among the highly educated is low & stable.

We're approaching an era of fertility "haves" & "have nots".
www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/worki...
1 4 17

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear

thetimes.com
Investigation clears Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked after saying that ‘in a meritocracy’ black people would not hold prestigious positions
Cambridge says academic’s ‘offensive’ race views were free speech
Investigation clears Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked after saying that ‘in a meritocracy’ black people would not hold prestigious positions
www.thetimes.com
6 4 1

by Rebecca Sear — Reposted by: Vegard Skirbekk, Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
“This Special Issue will provide an opportunity for population scientists to contribute to the conversations about pronatalism throughout the world. We welcome critical, theoretical, descriptive, and empirical submissions that explicitly focus on some aspect of pronatalism”
Contemporary Pronatalism in Demographic Context
Call for Papers Low and declining birth rates across the world have consequences for countries’ population size and structure. Concerns over the potential ...
link.springer.com
2 3 8

Reposted by: Rebecca Sear

kevinlala.bsky.social
Loved this video by @shaunvids.bsky.social about The War on Science book. Its full of fascinating, yet disturbing, snippets about some of the world's most famous scientists. Gold.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyU5...
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References

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