BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://bec.ucla.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20080309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20081102T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20090308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20091101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20100314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20101107T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20110313T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20111106T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100512T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100512T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214733Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004824Z UID:4140-1273622400-1273622400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Doug Kenrick - How the Mind Warps: Evolution and Social Cognition DESCRIPTION:Doug Kenrick: Arizona State University Department of PsychologyThe human mind processes information in a famously selective and shockingly biased way. Who and what do we select for attention\, encoding\, and retrieval\, and how\, why\, and when do we distort certain kinds of information in certain ways and not others? My colleagues and I have been studying how basic cognitive processes are influenced by activating fundamental human motivations such as self-protection or mating goals. We’ve found several domain-specific cognitive enhancements\, decrements\, and distortions: we stare at\, but fail to remember\, certain people in certain circumstances\, we look away from\, yet remember\, other people in other conditions\, and sometimes we differentiate members of out-groups who are normally blurred together in our memories. These motivated biases are anything but random and senseless. Instead they predispose adaptive context-sensitive decisions about whether to conform or show off\, whether to fight or flirt\, whether to take financial risks\, and so on. At a deeper level\, these biases make functional sense when considered in light of broader theoretical developments at the interface of evolutionary biology\, comparative anthropology\, and cognitive science. http://www.bec.ucla.edu/KenrickPaper1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/doug-kenrick-how-the-mind-warps-evolution-and-social-cognition/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100510T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100510T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214733Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004825Z UID:4139-1273449600-1273449600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Eric Alden Smith - Large-Scale Cooperation in Small-Scale Societies DESCRIPTION:Eric Alden Smith: University of Washington Department of AnthropologyCollective action with low relatedness (large-n\, low-r cooperation) is a common feature of human societies\, in marked contrast to patterns in other species. This is particularly puzzling for small-scale societies of foragers and horticulturalists\, where formal social institutions to enforce collective action are weak or absent. There is considerable disagreement regarding the evolutionary basis of such forms of collective action; some are convinced they can be explained via standard forms of mutualism\, reciprocity\, and coercion supplemented by reputation mechanisms\, while others insist that various forms of cultural group selection are required. This debate has been protracted\, and progress in our understanding of the issues appears stymied. I argue that progress can be made\, but will require carefully targeted empirical evidence from naturalistic settings\, particularly concerning the distribution of costs and benefits among collective action participants. I focus here on small-scale societies\, and pinpoint areas in which empirical evidence could be particularly helpful. These include: \n 1) What are the payoff structures for empirically common forms of collective action?\n 2) How great is reproductive skew within groups\, and what are its individual-level and institutional correlates?\n 3) At what frequency do groups with greater amounts of collective action prevail demographically? \nI discuss ethnographic variation in Native North America to explore what patterns these phenomena might take. However\, convincing answers to these questions will require carefully tailored analyses of new or existing data.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/SmithPaper1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/eric-alden-smith-large-scale-cooperation-in-small-scale-societies/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100503T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100503T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214729Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004825Z UID:4138-1272844800-1272844800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Edward Slingerland - Why do Humanists Hate Vertical Integration? DESCRIPTION:Edward Slingerland: University of British Columbia Department of Asian Studies\, Canada Research Chair in Chinese Thought and Embodied CognitionCalls to “vertically integrate” (Tooby & Cosmides) or achieve “consilience” (E.O. Wilson) between the sciences and the humanities have\, for the most part\, been received with a great deal of hostility by humanists. This talk explores some of the reasons–good\, bad\, and unavoidable–for this hostility\, and sketches an outline of what might profitably be called a “second wave” of consilience\, one that would help to bring about a more amicable relationship between the “two cultures.”http://www.bec.ucla.edu/EdSlingerland.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/edward-slingerland-why-do-humanists-hate-vertical-integration/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100426T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100426T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214728Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004825Z UID:4137-1272240000-1272240000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Dario Maestripieri - Post-Copulatory Sexual Selection and Female Mating Vocalizations in Primates DESCRIPTION:Dario Maestripieri: University of Chicago Professor of Comparative Human Development\, Evolutionary Biology\, Neurobiology\, and PsychiatryPost-copulatory sexual selection operates through two main mechanisms: sperm competition and post-copulatory female choice. Little is known about the role of female behavior in inciting sperm competition or in the expression of post-copulatory choice. Little is also known about signals that occur after\, rather than before\, mating. The vocalizations that primate females give shortly after mating may be sexually selected signals that play an important role in both sperm competition and post-copulatory female choice. In recent papers\, we have argued that female copulation calls have two immediate functions: to encourage mating attempts by other males and to increase mate guarding by the consort male. These vocalizations may have evolved under the selective pressures of risk of infanticide and sperm competition. When male mate guarding is effective\, copulation calls allow females to concentrate paternity in dominant males and benefit from their protection against the risk of infanticide. When mate guarding is ineffective\, copulation calls bring genetic benefits to females through facilitation of sperm competition. In this seminar\, I will present a quantitative model in which variation in female promiscuity associated with social or ecological factors affects the extent to which dominant males can monopolize females and predicts female tendency to use copulation calls in conjunction with mating. The model predicts that in species with little female promiscuity\, copulation calls should be rare and occur only after mating with dominant males. In species in which females are highly promiscuous\, copulation calls should be frequent and occur after mating with any males regardless of their dominance rank. Consistent with the model\, I will present data showing that female copulation calls are rare or absent in primate species in which male infanticide does not occur and sperm competition is absent or weak\, whereas variation in female promiscuity in species in which male infanticide or sperm competition occurs accurately predicts the extent to which mating is accompanied by copulation calls. I will also present behavioral data from captive baboons showing that female copulation calls are most likely to occur after mating with dominant males and are effective in encouraging post-copulatory mate guarding.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/DarioPaper.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dario-maestripieri-post-copulatory-sexual-selection-and-female-mating-vocalizations-in-primates/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100419T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100419T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214728Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004825Z UID:4136-1271635200-1271635200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Justin Wood - The Evolutionary Origins of Action Comprehension DESCRIPTION:Justin Wood: USC Department of PsychologyAs social creatures\, we wake up every morning to a dizzying array of actions from allies and competitors\, in contexts that include cooperation\, resource competition and parental care. Some actions are intentional\, motivated by either distal or proximal goals; some are accidental\, but nonetheless result in similar consequences. How do humans comprehend such actions\, and are the mechanisms that subserve this ability uniquely human or shared with other species? In this talk\, I present evidence that three nonhuman primate species (cotton-top tamarins\, rhesus macaques\, and chimpanzees)\, representing the three major groups (New World monkeys\, Old World monkeys\, and apes) comprehend others’ actions in the same way as human infants and adults. These results illuminate the evolutionary origins of a primary socio-cognitive ability and help distinguish between competing models of action comprehension in humans.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/JustinWood.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/justin-wood-the-evolutionary-origins-of-action-comprehension/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100412T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100412T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214727Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004825Z UID:4135-1271030400-1271030400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Tom Griffiths - Effects of Inductive Biases on Cultural Transmission DESCRIPTION:Tom Griffiths: UC Berkeley Department of Psychology and Group Major in Cognitive ScienceLearning a language\, a concept\, or a social norm all require making an inductive inference\, going beyond the data provided by the behavior of other people. Such inferences are underdetermined by the available data\, allowing people’s biases to influence the conclusion that they reach. These inductive biases reflect the expectations that people have about which hypotheses are most likely to account for the data they observe\, and the factors that make it easier to learn some languages\, concepts\, and norms rather than others. I will present a combination of theoretical results and laboratory experiments demonstrating that inductive biases can have a significant effect on the changes that information undergoes when it is passed from one person to another. By simplifying the process of cultural transmission down to a “diffusion chain” along which information is passed\, we can examine how the inductive biases of individual agents influence the outcome of this transmission process. Assuming that the agents passing information are rational Bayesian learners\, we can prove that over time the information they transmit will be transformed into a form more consistent with their inductive biases. Laboratory experiments in which diffusion chains are constructed from human participants bear out this prediction\, with experiments in which a sequence of people learn from data generated by other people or reconstruct information from memory producing results that reflect their inductive biases. I will discuss the implications of these results for understanding cultural evolution more generally\, as well as for identifying the circumstances under which we can expect knowledge to accumulate over time.http://cocosci.berkeley.edu/tom/papers/ilreview.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/tom-griffiths-effects-of-inductive-biases-on-cultural-transmission/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100405T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100405T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214726Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004825Z UID:4134-1270425600-1270425600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Peter Gray - The Descent of Dad's Sexuality DESCRIPTION:Peter Gray: University of Nevada-Las Vegas Department of AnthropologyHow does fatherhood impact men’s sexuality? In this presentation\, we review some of the core facets of paternal sexuality. Cross-cultural patterns of fertility beliefs suggest that a physiological basis of paternity is usually recognized\, but without a link to mid-cycle ovulation. Male anatomy and semen components are optimized for successful reproduction in the face of relatively low sperm competition. Following conception\, cross-cultural variation in sexual practices during gestation exists. In some societies\, men are expected to engage in frequent intercourse to help foster a fetus’ growth\, whereas in others intercourse quickly plummets following recognition of a pregnancy. Possible explanations for this variation are suggested. Postpartum declines in sexuality are robust in meta-analysis of western societies and cross-culturally\, but also responsive to a number of variables. The resumption of sexual activity within a couple can be best understood with reference to reductions in female libido\, breastfeeding\, the availability of alternative sexual partners (e.g.\, in polygynous marriages)\, marital quality and partners’ ages. The human propensity to have sex in private also poses challenges to the resumption of sexual activity\, especially in light of social sleeping arrangements. Implications and directions for future research are suggested\, including the call for researchers and analysts to consider reproductive state (e.g.\, postpartum) more formally in sexuality data\, and for more inclusive samples (e.g.\, gay fathers and stepfathers) addressing paternal sexuality.http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/ANDMAN.html URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/peter-gray-the-descent-of-dads-sexuality/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100329T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100329T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214640Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004826Z UID:4133-1269820800-1269820800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:P. Jeffrey Brantingham - Burglars\, Bangers and Bombers: The Behavioral Mechanisms Underlying Repeat Victimization DESCRIPTION:P. Jeffrey Brantingham: UCLA Department of AnthropologyIt is well known that victims of both violent and property crime experience an increased risk of being victimized again\, especially during a brief interval of time following the initial event. Ethnographic evidence suggests\, in the case of property crime\, that offenders seek out previous targets to replicate previous successes. In the case of violent crime\, by contrast\, retribution plays an important role in ramping-up and sustaining cycles of violence. Self-exciting point process models are used to study the time-course of burglary in Los Angeles\, violent acts and reprisals between rival gangs in Los Angeles and insurgent attacks in Iraq. Self-excitation appears to be a generic statistical structure for crime hotspot formation across most\, if not all types of crime. \nThis work is a collaborative effort with Andrea Bertozzi\, George Mohler\, Martin Short and Erik Lewis (UCLA Math)\, as well as George Tita (UC Irvine Criminology) and the Los Angeles Police Department. The work was supported by the US National Science Foundation. \n*(Co-Sponsored by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA) URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/p-jeffrey-brantingham-burglars-bangers-and-bombers-the-behavioral-mechanisms-underlying-repeat-victimization/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100308T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100308T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214639Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004826Z UID:4131-1268006400-1268006400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Peter Fashing - Behavioral ecology of East African primates: Costs and benefits of group living in colobus and gelada monkey societies DESCRIPTION:Peter Fashing: CSU Fullerton Department of AnthropologyGiven that animal societies represent a collection of genetically selfish individuals that have come together to live and reproduce as part of a group\, conflicts over the allocation of resources essential to survival and reproduction must routinely occur. For groups to remain stable over evolutionary time\, these conflicts must be resolved to the satisfaction of all group members – that is\, the benefits of group life must outweigh the costs. In this talk\, I will describe my past\, present and future research into the costs and benefits of group living for individuals and groups of wild primates\, including colobus and gelada monkeys\, in East Africa\, and discuss how insights gained from non-invasive\, observational sampling of primate behavior and ecology can shed light on the evolution of group living in humans and other animals. http://www.bec.ucla.edu/Fashing1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/peter-fashing-behavioral-ecology-of-east-african-primates-costs-and-benefits-of-group-living-in-colobus-and-gelada-monkey-societies/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100301T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100301T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214638Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004826Z UID:4129-1267401600-1267401600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Russell Gray - The Pleasures and Perils of Darwinizing Culture (with Phylogenies) DESCRIPTION:Russell Gray: University of Auckland Department of PsychologyCurrent debates about “Darwinizing culture” have typically focused on the validity of memetics. In this talk I will argue that meme-like inheritance is not a necessary requirement for descent with modification and suggest that an alternative\, and more productive\, way of Darwinizing culture can be found in the application of computational phylogenetic methods. The benefits of this approach will be illustrated by drawing on my recent work examining linguistic and cultural evolution in the Pacific. I will discuss problems that reticulate evolution allegedly cause phylogenetic analyses and suggest ways in which these problems can be overcome. Throughout I will emphasize that most debates about cultural phylogenies can only be settled by empirical research rather than armchair speculation.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/R.Gray1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/russell-gray-the-pleasures-and-perils-of-darwinizing-culture-with-phylogenies/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100222T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100222T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214609Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004826Z UID:4128-1266796800-1266796800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Peter Kim - The Manifestation of Mob Mentalities DESCRIPTION:Peter Kim: USC Department of Management and Organization\, Marshall School of Business\, University of Southern CaliforniaThroughout history\, people have faced the question of how best to respond to a wide range of alleged and/or actual transgressions. A fundamental uncertainty\, in this regard\, is whether our reactions to such transgressions would differ depending on whether we respond to them as individuals or as groups. This question deserves particular scrutiny given that transgressions can often affect multiple people\, the fact that our reactions to such transgressions are rarely made in isolation\, the frequency with which these assessments may be made at a collective level\, and the potential implications of such assessments for social and organizational life. However\, the literature offers little guidance on these issues\, given that previous research has focused primarily on the reactions of individuals. The present inquiry seeks to address this limitation: a) by investigating how individuals and groups might differ in their reactions to alleged transgressions\, b) by determining the conditions under which such differences would arise\, c) by identifying some underlying mechanisms for these differences\, and d) by exploring the ways in which transitions between individual and group modes of evaluation may affect these assessments.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/PeterKimPaper.doc URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/peter-kim-the-manifestation-of-mob-mentalities/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100208T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100208T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214608Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004826Z UID:4127-1265587200-1265587200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Karen Bales - Neurobiology of parenting in monogamous species DESCRIPTION:Karen Bales: UC Davis Department of PsychologyIn socially monogamous mammals like humans\, many individuals such as mothers\, fathers\, and alloparents often display parenting behaviors. While the hormonal and neural basis of maternal care has been well-studied\, both fathering and alloparenting remain more mysterious. Studies from prairie voles and titi monkeys\, both monogamous mammals\, implicate oxytocin\, vasopressin\, and glucocorticoids in the regulation of these behaviors. While these hormones may facilitate parenting\, developmental data also suggest that the exposure to infants itself changes the brain in a long-term fashion in both males and females. I will discuss what is known about the neurobiology of parenting in males\, females\, and alloparents\, and what opportunities and challenges exist in studying these topics in humans URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/karen-bales-neurobiology-of-parenting-in-monogamous-species/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100201T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100201T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214608Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004826Z UID:4126-1264982400-1264982400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Eric Vilain - Gaynomics: The Biology of Sexual Orientation DESCRIPTION:Eric Vilain: Professor of Human Genetics\, Pediatrics and Urology Director\, Center for Gender-Based Biology\, Chief\, Medical Genetics – Department of Pediatrics\, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLAHuman sexual orientation\, one’s preference for male or female sexual partners\, is a largely stable behavioral trait with a significant genetic component. It is a highly sexually dimorphic trait\, and as such an interesting model for brain sexual differentiation. \nThere is much uncertainty about the factors that shape sexual orientation. Although many studies have helped to explain the experience of lesbian\, gay\, and bisexual (LGB) individuals\, empirically supported explanations for the development of an LGB identity are lacking. \nOften the media hypes the results of biological research on sexual orientation. Yet\, the reports on biological findings are filtered through the journalists’ understanding of the science and at times are misrepresented. Further\, parties who are both for and against the rights of sexual minorities reinterpret these media reports. This can make it difficult to sort fact from fiction. \nThe purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview on what the biological research has shown in regards to sexual orientation\, to assess the current state of the research\, and to highlight strengths/limitations of this research. To accomplish this\, four main areas will be considered. \nHormones: Research has investigated whether prenatal hormones affect sexual orientation. Although hormones have an impact on behavior\, only gross hormonal variations seem to affect sexual orientation.\nAnatomical associations: Despite media attention\, evidence that non-heterosexual individuals have distinctive anatomical features is far from conclusive. In regards to the anatomical association studies\, only non-right handedness and specific anatomical features of the hypothalamus have a consistent relationship with a non-heterosexual orientation.\nBirth order: A consistent finding is that having an older brother increases the odd of male homosexuality. Differing theoretical viewpoints on this issue will be discussed.\nGenetics: Finally\, the most promising evidence for biological influences comes from recent advances in the field of genetics. The validity of studies using “family trees” and the potential role of the expression of genes on sexual orientation will be discussed. Finally\, twin studies will be reviewed\, as well our own epigenetic data on twin pairs discordant for sexual orientation. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/eric-vilain-gaynomics-the-biology-of-sexual-orientation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100125T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100125T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214607Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004826Z UID:4125-1264377600-1264377600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Nameera Akhtar - Children's learning from third-party interactions DESCRIPTION:Nameera Akhtar: UCSC Department of PsychologyParents and researchers in Western middle-class societies emphasize dyadic interactions and teaching children new skills directly. This emphasis obscures the fact that young children can learn much through observation of others’ interactions. I will describe the results of several recent studies of young children’s learning from third-party interactions. Some of the studies examine learning novel words through overhearing others involve the learning of novel actions (imitative learning). The findings indicate that learning from third-party interactions is a robust skill seen in children as young as 18 months\, and suggest that this type of learning may rely on emerging social-cognitive skills that enable the child to imagine herself in the third-party interaction. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/nameera-akhtar-childrens-learning-from-third-party-interactions/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100115T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100115T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214606Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004827Z UID:4124-1263513600-1263513600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Tim Waring - Do Ethnic Divisions Restrict Sustainable use of Natural Resources? A case study from Tamil Nadu DESCRIPTION:Tim Waring: UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and PolicyNumerous scholars have shown that increasing ethnic diversity is correlated with reduced cooperation and fewer public goods. This result has significant implications for development policy\, lowering expectations for success in public infrastructure investment with ethnically diverse populations. I present evidence that ethnic hierarchy may be driving the observed effect of ethnic diversity. Ethnic hierarchy is naturally confounded with ethnic diversity because hierarchy cannot logically exist without diversity and because diversity without hierarchy may be exceedingly rare. To determine which factor is a greater constraint on cooperation\, I tested the strength of both ethnic diversity and ethnic hierarchy as cooperative limitations using public goods experiments with caste groups in South India. I show that the effect of ethnic diversity is neutralized when relatedness between individuals is taken into account. However\, ethnic hierarchy remains severely damaging to public goods cooperation\, when all variables are accounted for\, and is a required variable for any explanatory model. Moreover\, the influence of social momentum is significant. I find that the initial behavior in the game determines the long run outcome\, while the cooperative momentum is carried forward in the round-by-round decisions.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/TimWaringSlides.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/tim-waring-do-ethnic-divisions-restrict-sustainable-use-of-natural-resources-a-case-study-from-tamil-nadu/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100111T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100111T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214455Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004827Z UID:4120-1263168000-1263168000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Lynn Fairbanks - Genetic\, Maternal and Life History Influences on Sociability in Vervet Monkeys DESCRIPTION:Lynn Fairbanks: UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral SciencesThe ability to form and maintain social relationships is an important attribute that has broad implications for health and fitness in humans and nonhuman primates. In this presentation\, I will describe the development of a quantitative measure of sociability in the Vervet Research Colony\, a multigenerational pedigreed colony of vervet monkeys\, and present evidence for the consistency\, specificity and heritability of sociability as a trait. Mean Sociability scores are affected by life history variables\, including age\, sex\, male emigration\, and the presence of infants\, but longitudinal analysis indicates that individual differences are maintained over time and across life stages. Because of the importance of matrilineal social relationships in primate societies\, including the social ‘inheritance’ of dominance rank for females\, there is a possibility of maternal environmental effects on sociability. To account for this\, we include a component for shared maternal environment in a statistical genetics analysis to identify the contributions of genetic and maternal effects on trait variation\, using the extended pedigree. The results indicate there are strong genetic contributions to variation in Sociability scores for both males and females\, with maternal effects accounting for a smaller but statistically significant portion of the variance for females but not for males. The final part of the presentation will provide evidence for effects of variation in sociability on male reproductive success. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/lynn-fairbanks-genetic-maternal-and-life-history-influences-on-sociability-in-vervet-monkeys/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100104T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20100104T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214455Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004827Z UID:4121-1262563200-1262563200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Adriana Galvan - Adolescence as a developmental period of increased risk-taking and reward sensitivity: Insights from Neuroimaging DESCRIPTION:Adriana Galvan: UCLA Department of PsychologyAdolescence is a developmental period marked by heightened sensitivity to reward and increased proclivity towards risk-taking behavior. These behavioral changes are paralleled by significant developmental changes in neural circuitry related to reward processing and cognitive control. In this talk\, I will describe recent data on adolescent brain development\, propose a neurobiological model to describe adolescent risk-taking behavior\, and provide a framework for how these neuroimaging insights might be used for intervention and prevention of harmful risk-taking behaviors during adolescence. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/adriana-galvan-adolescence-as-a-developmental-period-of-increased-risk-taking-and-reward-sensitivity-insights-from-neuroimaging/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091130T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091130T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214454Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004827Z UID:4119-1259539200-1259539200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Catherine Reed - The Role of Specialized Body Processing for Embodied Social Perception DESCRIPTION:Catherine Reed: Claremont-McKenna College Department of PsychologySocial psychologists have embraced the tenants of embodied cognition to explain how we understand the emotions of others. They claim that the reinstantiation of previous sensorimotor experience during emotional and social information processing is an essential process for understanding others’ emotions (e.g.\, Neidenthal\, Barsalou\, Winkielman\, Krauth-Gruber\, & Ric\, 2005). In this talk I suggest that current models of embodied emotion are missing the necessary body-processing mechanisms from which the simulations of emotional experience operate. Further\, if one cannot create the basic correspondences between another person’s body and one’s own then one cannot engage in the appropriate simulation process which can lead to social-emotional deficits such as those observed in autism spectrum disorders. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/catherine-reed-the-role-of-specialized-body-processing-for-embodied-social-perception/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091123T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091123T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214453Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004827Z UID:4118-1258934400-1258934400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:David Liu - Asking DESCRIPTION:David Liu: UCSD Department of PsychologyMuch research and debate around theory of mind (the ability to attribute mental states to actions) have revolved around whether X have a theory of\nmind. X might be 3-year-olds\, infants\, children with autism\, chimpanzees\, rhesus macaques\, and so forth. I will argue that the better question is what aspects or types of theory of mind are used by X. Numerous studies have shown that children develop different components or aspects of mental-state understanding at different ages\, and nonhuman animals demonstrate some components of mental-state understanding in certain situations. Research in my lab has shown that children with different developmental disabilities and typically-developing children from different cultures have shared and nonshared trajectories in their developmental progression of understanding different mental states. In addition\, we have discovered different neural circuitries associated with reasoning about different mental states. Our findings provide a framework for understanding similarities and differences in mental-state understanding across different human populations and different species. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/david-liu-asking/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091116T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091116T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214453Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004827Z UID:4117-1258329600-1258329600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:John Novembre - Spatial population structure and the genetic basis of adaptation in human populations DESCRIPTION:John Novembre: UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Interdepartmental Program in BioinformaticsNovel technological developments are providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the geographic distribution of human genomic diversity. This information has been leveraged to study population structure and interrogate signatures of natural selection. In this talk I will review emerging results from geographic studies of human genetic variation that provide insights into 1) human population structure; and 2) the genetic basis of the response by human populations to recent selective pressures. http://www.bec.ucla.edu/NovembreTalk.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/john-novembre-spatial-population-structure-and-the-genetic-basis-of-adaptation-in-human-populations/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091109T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091109T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214446Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z UID:4116-1257724800-1257724800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Katerina Semendeferi - Neuroanatomical perspectives on the evolution of the mind DESCRIPTION:Katerina Semendeferi: UCSD Department of AnthropologyThe organ of the mind\, the brain\, is the focus of several fields of study. This lecture will address the role of neuroanatomy in reconstructions of cognitive evolution. It will present new data on the internal organization of the brain of humans and great apes and will revisit\, in a critical light\, some of the older data sets widely used in primate evolutionary studies. The lecture will address the challenges of reconstructing cognitive evolution based on animals like the apes that cannot be studied invasively\, the significance of including closely related taxonomic groups in studies of human evolution and the issues involved in transferring brain/mind data from animal models to hominids that are characterized by differences in brain size and socioecological adaptations. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/katerina-semendeferi-neuroanatomical-perspectives-on-the-evolution-of-the-mind/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091102T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091102T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214446Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z UID:4115-1257120000-1257120000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Steve Neuberg - Toward a Functional\, Affordance-Centered Model of Person Perception\, Prejudices\, and Social Interaction: Taking into Account Life History and Ecological Considerations DESCRIPTION:Steve Neuberg: Arizona State University Department of PsychologyTraditional psychological and social science theories fail to account for the complexity and nuance that characterize people’s prejudices and the manner in which\, more generally\, people view and interact with one another. I am developing an alternative\, functional\, affordance-based model\, one positing (1) that our views of others are based on our inferences about their goals\, the behavioral strategies they employ to reach them\, and the tangible threats and opportunities afforded us by those strategies\, and (2) that these goal and strategy inferences are themselves heuristically inferred from others’ life history standing (i.e.\, age X sex categorization) in combination with stereotypes about the behavioral strategies favored by the different physical and social ecologies in which people live (i.e.\, “ecology stereotypes”). This vertically integrative framework-linking life history and ecological considerations to person perception processes-provides a more compelling account for a wide range of psychological and social phenomena related to intergroup stereotypes and prejudices\, within-coalition stereotypes and prejudices\, various social-cognitive biases\, and the general accuracy of person perception and stereotypes. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/steve-neuberg-toward-a-functional-affordance-centered-model-of-person-perception-prejudices-and-social-interaction-taking-into-account-life-history-and-ecological-considerations/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091026T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091026T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214445Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z UID:4114-1256515200-1256515200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Andrew Shaner - Autism as the low-fitness extreme of a parentally selected fitness indicator DESCRIPTION:Andrew Shaner: UCLA Semel Institute for Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences; Deputy Chief of Psychiatry and Mental Health\, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare SystemIn many species\, siblings compete for parental care and feeding\, while parents must allocate scarce resources to those offspring most likely to survive and reproduce. This could cause offspring to evolve traits that advertise health\, and thereby attract parental resources. For example\, experimental evidence suggests that bright orange filaments covering the heads of North American coot chicks may have evolved for this fitness-advertising purpose. Suppose that the ability of infants and very young children to charm their parents evolved as a parentally selected fitness indicator. Young children would vary greatly in their ability to charm parents\, that variation would correlate with underlying fitness\, and autism could be the low-fitness extreme of this variation.\nThis general version of our hypothesis can explain why autism begins in childhood\, why it is highly heritable\, why the responsible genes have been so hard to find\, why it is more common in boys and more severe in girls and why it is associated with environmental hazards\, developmental abnormalities and increased mortality. Among its predictions is that autism will be more common in populations with historically high rates of genetic polyandry.\nIn addition to the general hypothesis\, suppose that a key component of charm involves infant social behaviors that prolong breast feeding and thereby delay conception of a younger sibling. If true\, this would explain why autism impairs social abilities so early and so profoundly. It would also predict that (1) within populations\, age at onset of autism will parallel age at onset of weaning\, (2) autism will be associated with scarce environmental resources and early weaning\, (3) delaying weaning will protect against autism (4) close relatives will show higher variance in infant social ability (including its anatomical and neurophysiological bases)\, and in subsequent birth interval\, and (5) infant social ability will correlate positively with both underlying fitness and parental resource allocation (e.g.\, intensity and duration of breast-feeding).http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Shaner08.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/andrew-shaner-autism-as-the-low-fitness-extreme-of-a-parentally-selected-fitness-indicator/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20201006T212532Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z UID:4890-1255910400-1255910400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Steve Frank - Demography and timescale in social evolution DESCRIPTION:Steve Frank: UC Irvine & Santa Fe Institute Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCurrent studies of biological sociality tend to ignore two key factors: the consequences of social traits on long-term aspects of survival and fecundity (demography)\, and the tension between short and long time scales of success. I use several examples from the biology of microbes to illustrate these fundamental processes of sociality\, which apply to any problem that can be framed in terms of natural selection or economic efficiency. For those interested in the particular biological examples\, here is a brief summary. Microbes secrete molecules to modify their environment. Secretions dislodge and bind iron\, manipulate host defenses\, build protective biofilm structures\, and communicate information to neighboring microbes. Successful modulation of the environment and successful communication require collective action by a large population of microbes. Recent studies show that kin or group selection powerfully shapes the ways in which microbes collectively communicate and modify their environment. Others studies have shown that the basic design of metabolism and cellular biochemistry may also be influenced by social processes. Competition favors fast extraction and use of resources\, reducing metabolic efficiency and leading to low yield per unit of resource. I place these microbial processes into the broad framework of economic and life history theories of biology. I also show that demographic and timescale processes lead to new predictions about microbial pathogenesis and metabolism. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/steve-frank-demography-and-timescale-in-social-evolution-2/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214445Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z UID:4113-1255910400-1255910400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Steve Frank - Demography and timescale in social evolution DESCRIPTION:Steve Frank: UC Irvine & Santa Fe Institute Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCurrent studies of biological sociality tend to ignore two key factors: the consequences of social traits on long-term aspects of survival and fecundity (demography)\, and the tension between short and long time scales of success. I use several examples from the biology of microbes to illustrate these fundamental processes of sociality\, which apply to any problem that can be framed in terms of natural selection or economic efficiency. For those interested in the particular biological examples\, here is a brief summary. Microbes secrete molecules to modify their environment. Secretions dislodge and bind iron\, manipulate host defenses\, build protective biofilm structures\, and communicate information to neighboring microbes. Successful modulation of the environment and successful communication require collective action by a large population of microbes. Recent studies show that kin or group selection powerfully shapes the ways in which microbes collectively communicate and modify their environment. Others studies have shown that the basic design of metabolism and cellular biochemistry may also be influenced by social processes. Competition favors fast extraction and use of resources\, reducing metabolic efficiency and leading to low yield per unit of resource. I place these microbial processes into the broad framework of economic and life history theories of biology. I also show that demographic and timescale processes lead to new predictions about microbial pathogenesis and metabolism. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/steve-frank-demography-and-timescale-in-social-evolution/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091012T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091012T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214444Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z UID:4112-1255305600-1255305600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Bruce Bridgeman - Treading a Slippery Slope: Slant Perception in Near and Far Space DESCRIPTION:Bruce Bridgeman: UC Santa Cruz Department of PsychologyEstimation of slope is an everyday tool for navigating the external world. Previous studies have found that slopes are overestimated more greatly with a verbal than with a proprioceptive measure. Since some neurons in the premotor cortex respond differently to objects within arm’s reach\, we hypothesized that slope estimation may also be affected by neural pathways that respond differently to identical visual information at different distances. Alternatively\, vision may be warning us about the greater effort required to walk up a slope. Verbal estimates greatly overestimated the actual slope\, and increased logarithmically with distance from the participant\, contradicting both theories. Proprioceptive estimates were more accurate. When participants experience a slope directly by walking up and down a hill prior to making estimates\, their estimates remain unchanged. Increases in perceived slope with distance depend upon range of the segment judged\, not length of the segment. The results can be interpreted as an implicit slope\, previously measured only in darkness\, modulated by depth cues available at near distances. http://www.bec.ucla.edu/slopes09.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/bruce-bridgeman-treading-a-slippery-slope-slant-perception-in-near-and-far-space/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091005T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091005T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214425Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z UID:4111-1254700800-1254700800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Greg Hickok - On the nature of auditory-motor interaction in speech processing: implications for the interpretation of mirror neurons and beyond DESCRIPTION:Greg Hickok: UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences & Center for Cognitive NeuroscienceThere are two ideas regarding how auditory and motor speech systems interact in language processing. A popular view in the neuroscience community is that motor systems play an important role in the perception of speech. This is an old idea that has been largely (if not completely) abandoned on empirical grounds by the speech science community. However\, the discovery of mirror neurons in the macaque brain has resurrected the hypothesis among neuroscientists. The other idea regarding auditory-motor interaction comes out of the motor control literature which has provided compelling evidence that the auditory system plays an important role in speech production. I will review the evidence\, current and past\, for these two hypotheses and conclude (i) the motor system is not necessary for speech perception\, (ii) the motor system may be able to exert a top-down influence on auditory speech perception system but the evidence remains inconclusive and even if real the effects are relatively minor\, (iii) there is strong evidence for the reverse relation\, that auditory systems play a critical role in aspects of speech production. I will also review a number of fMRI and lesion studies aimed at mapping the cortical circuit supporting sensory-motor interaction in speech processing. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/greg-hickok-on-the-nature-of-auditory-motor-interaction-in-speech-processing-implications-for-the-interpretation-of-mirror-neurons-and-beyond/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090928T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090928T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214425Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z UID:4110-1254096000-1254096000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Aaron Sell - An evolutionary-computational model of human anger DESCRIPTION:Aaron Sell: UCSB Department of PsychologyAnger can be understood as a cognitive mechanism designed by natural selection to negotiate conflicts of interest in ways similar to\, but distinct from\, non-human animal conflict. The Recalibrational Theory of anger uses an evolutionary biological framework to predict the major features of anger and explain their computational structure by reference to this function. Datasets collected from five distinct cultures address the major features of anger including under what conditions anger is evoked\, when aggression is used by the anger system\, which individuals set lower thresholds for anger and aggression\, why and how anger triggers modifications of the face and voice\, and how one predicts and explains the computational structure of anger-based arguments. The data demonstrate that anger is a well-designed system for recalibrating targets in ways that minimize immediate and future costs resulting from conflicts of interest.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/SellTalk.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/aaron-sell-an-evolutionary-computational-model-of-human-anger/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090603T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090603T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214424Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z UID:4109-1243987200-1243987200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Devesh Rustagi - Conditional Cooperation Norm\, Altruistic Punishment\, and Participatory Forest Management in Ethiopia DESCRIPTION:Devesh Rustagi: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology\, Zurich – Department of Environmental Policy and EconomicsRecent research suggests that the power of conditional cooperation norm and punishment of norm violators in sustaining cooperation depends on behavioral type composition of a group\, which has been shown\, experimentally\, to have a predictive effect on cooperation outcome. However\, because the existing evidence is exclusively based on experiments with a handful of students from the industrialized west\, fundamental questions on the occurrence of this evidence across cultures\, in a real world setting\, and it’s policy relevance remain unanswered. Here\, we report results from experiments and surveys with 679 members belonging to 49 forest user societies engaged in the management of common property forests in Ethiopia. We find that\, first\, 35 % members behave as conditional cooperators. Second\, the share of conditional cooperators in a society has a significantly positive effect on the society’s forest management outcome\, even when we control for structural determinants of cooperation. Third\, conditional cooperators use costly monitoring as a mechanism to achieve a better forest outcome. The unique field settings allow us to generate this evidence in conditions where endogenous group formation\, high migration and reverse causality have been ruled out. Our findings provide empirical support to the models of punishment and cultural group selection. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/devesh-rustagi-conditional-cooperation-norm-altruistic-punishment-and-participatory-forest-management-in-ethiopia/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090601T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090601T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T235324 CREATED:20200922T214424Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z UID:4108-1243814400-1243814400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Ruth Mace - Cultural Evolution and the Behavioural Ecology of Fertility Decline DESCRIPTION:Ruth Mace: University College London Department of AnthropologyA behavioural ecological approach to human birth rates suggests they should vary according to the costs of raising children to adulthood. Demographers and most other social scientists are sceptical of this view\, not least because birth rates are generally lowest in the wealthiest countries; most favour arguments based on cultural changes and cultural influences. I will argue that evolutionary arguments based on costs and benefits and on cultural influence are not mutually exclusive and that variation in birth rates both within populations and also across populations can be understood in terms of different levels of parental investment and different constraints on parents. I will draw on data from Kenya\, Ethiopia\, the Gambia and the UK to illustrate these points. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/ruth-mace-cultural-evolution-and-the-behavioural-ecology-of-fertility-decline/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR