Derek E. Lyons: Post-Doctoral Scholar; UC Irvine Department of InformaticsChildren are generally masterful imitators, both rational and flexible in their acquisition of knowledge from the observation of others. A phenomenon that we have termed overimitation (Lyons, Young, & Keil, 2007), however, initially seems a curious exception to this rule. After observing an adult intentionally operating […]

Brian Wood: Stanford Department of AnthropologyIn this research, we use newly collected data describing how Hadza men’s foods were produced, shared, and consumed in order to elucidate the general motivations underlying, and consequences of, Hadza male foraging strategies. We test predictions of the showoff, costly signaling, household provisioning, and kin provisioning hypotheses, finding strong support […]

Ádám Miklósi: Eötvös University Department of EthologyFor longer than we can remember dogs and humans have been friends. While both humanity and dogs benefited from this relationship, science has not shown any interest in the “Whys” and “How-s” until recently. However, the last 15 years have pushed the dog into the middle ground of comparative […]

Sarah Mesnick: Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries ServiceKnowledge of the genetic structure of social groupings provides the basis for understanding the relative influences of kin selection and reciprocity in the evolution of individual behavior and for understanding the basis of population structure, which is important for conservation. Sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, groups comprised of […]