Robbie Wilson: University of QueenslandAnimals routinely compete for access to limited resources, including food, territories or mates. Because combat is energetically costly and increases the risk of injury or death, individuals should avoid fighting unless they have a reasonable chance of winning. Specialised structures such as teeth, claws or horns can be used to show […]

Rose Scott: UC MercedA large part of our daily lives involves interpreting other people’s behavior in terms of their underlying mental states. In particular, the capacity to recognize that others may hold and act on false beliefs plays a vital role in social interactions. The question of when and how false-belief understanding develops is currently […]

Ed Vul: UC San DiegoHuman behavior is robust, adaptable, and, human behavior often deviates from the utility maximizing "rational" agent. This is usually attributed to people relying on an assortment of cheap heuristics to make efficient, but frequently biased, decisions. While the heuristics and biases research program has highlighted the many deviations of human behavior […]

Jerry Siegel: UCLAHow did humans sleep before the modern era? Because the tools to measure sleep under natural conditions were developed long after the invention of the electric devices suspected of delaying and reducing sleep, we investigated sleep in three preindustrial societies. We find that all three show similar sleep organization, suggesting that they express […]