Nominations for HBES elections 2025

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Dear HBES Community,
2025 is an election year for the Executive Council. We are therefore seeking suggestions for nominees for the following positions:
  • President of HBES
  • Communications Officer
  • Member-at-Large (two positions available)
  • Student Representative (must be current graduate student through spring 2027)
Suggestions for Nominees are due by January 31, 2025.
Elections Process:
  1. HBES community submits suggestions for nominees of particular positions, listed above.
  2. The Elections Committee of the HBES Executive Council will consider the HBES community suggestions and internal suggestions for positions.
  3. The Elections Committee will contact all nominees to confirm their willingness to serve if elected.
  4. The final selection of nominees for all positions will be shared with the HBES community in February 2025.
  5. HBES members will vote during spring of 2025 with voting open for at least 30 days. Your membership MUST be active to be eligible to vote. You can join or renew here.
  6. Results will be announced by the President of HBES.
  7. New officers will assume their roles after the 2025 HBES conference.
Sincerely,
HBES Elections Committee
(President Clark Barrett, Past-President Dave Schmitt, Treasurer Jessica Hehman)

Report on HBES 2024

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HBES 2024 was a success!

From May 22-25, we gathered in Aarhus, Denmark for 3.5 days of great presentations and camaraderie. It was the second in-person HBES meeting post-COVID, and it was lovely to see everyone again. Thanks to the local hosts Mathias Clasen, Elena Miu, & Marc Malmdorf Andersen, all the volunteers for helping it to run smoothly, the Program Committee, all competition judges, and of course all the speakers and presenters.

Plenaries

We enjoyed plenaries from the following researchers:

  • Joseph Carroll told us about how to use evolutionary theory in literary interpretations, which led to much interesting discussion
  • Lisa Feldman Barrett gave us three lessons on emotions: 1) your brain’s job is to predict your body’s future needs; 2) your brain constructs experience as it controls your body – experience is driven by predictions within your head; 3) signals (e.g., emotions observed in others) only have meaning in the context of other signals – the emotions you detect partly come from your own head
  • Dorsa Amir showed why evolutionists need to study children: many populations are mostly kids, and we spend a lot of time as kids. Also, kids learn mostly from other kids, so peer culture differs in interesting ways from vertically-transmitted culture
  • Judith Burkart argues why humans are special: we have an ape legacy of large brains which combines with our cooperative breeding to make us even smarter and extra cooperative. We share many things, including food… and information! Teaching is more common in cooperative breeders and skill-intensive niches, both of which apply to humans. Interesting fact: infanticide of healthy infants only occurs in cooperative breeders… like humans.
  • Manvir Singh presented a new view of cultural evolution: some traditions – call them “attractors” – appeal more to humans, and “super-attractors” are complex cultural packages that themselves attract attractors. He illustrated this with interesting data on the cross-cultural consistency of shamanism, music types, and more
  • Jaimie Krems argued that friendship exists within a network of rivalries over friends, so we need to study friendship “beyond the dyad”. Does someone value you more than your rivals? She presented neat data that competition over friends leads to friendship jealousy, venting to derogate competitors, and more
  • Nicolas Baumard presented a very useful way of seeing cultural evolution. Rather than view it as the transmission of cultural units, his “cultural ecology” sees culture as an expression of humans’ extended phenotype. This view incorporates ecological concepts like legacy effects (i.e., individuals leave traces that affect subsequent generations) and succession (cumulative change). Rather than “what cultural units will colonize new minds”, this flips the question to “which cultural legacies do people adopt?”
  • Brian Nosek (our keynote speaker) proposed a new model of Open Science to fix the problems in publishing that are a legacy of pre-digital (and pre-internet) print publishing, including evaluation of works at all stages and evaluation-based reward structures

Conference Awards

Every HBES conference has three Conference Awards: the New Investigator Award to the best graduate student paper/presentation, the Postdoctoral Award to the best paper/presentation by a recent graduate (<5 years post-PhD), and the Poster Award (best poster by anyone). Here are the winners of the 2024 HBES Conference Awards:

  • New Investigator Award: Olympia Campbell for “Genetic markers of cousin marriages and honour cultures”
  • Postdoctoctdoral Award: Konrad Rudnicki for “Investigating the evolutionary roots of gossip: the effects of gossip on cortisol, beta-endorphins, and cytokine levels”
  • Poster Award: Kasia Pisanski and colleagues for “The role of loudness in vocal intimidation”

Society Awards

HBES also announces the Society Awards: the Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution (best researcher <10 years post-PhD), the HBES Fellows (multiple awardees >10 years post-PhD), the Rising Stars (multiple awardees <8 years post-PhD), and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution. Here are the winners of the 2024 HBES Society Awards:

Paper Awards

And finally, there are the Paper Awards: the Margo Wilson Award for the best paper published the previous year in Evolution and Human Behavior (the official HBES journal), and the Don Symons Adaptationism Award for the best paper in the previous three years in any journal that best exemplifies the adaptationist program (this award is privately sponsored). The 2024 winners of the HBES Paper Awards are:

Announcing HBES 2025

Next year’s HBES will be held from June 4th-7th 2025 at Stockton University at their campus in Atlantic City New Jersey, with local host Josh Duntley. Atlantic City is accessible from Philadelphia and Newark NJ, and should have both dorm accommodation and hotels. Details will be announced soon. See you there!

An issue of EHB

New E&HB article format: Short Reports

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The official HBES journal, Evolution and Human Behavior, has created a new report format: short reports. Short reports, created in honor of John Tooby, are intended to expedite the publication of concise reports of original research. Short reports contain no more than 3000 words in the introduction, methods, results and discussion combined, an abstract of 200 words or less, and a maximum of 30 references. The introduction, only a few paragraphs in length, should state concisely the evolutionary rationale for the project (for example, the relevant selection pressure/adaptive problem and proposed behavioral/cognitive solution), a very brief description of the methods used, and specific empirical predictions. Short reports may have online-only supplements that contain full materials, supplemental tables, and details of complex methods. However, the supplement may not be used to circumvent the word count. A reviewer/reader of EHB should be able to evaluate the science of a short report solely from the main paper. Members of the Editorial Review Board and Invited Reviewers of short reports will be notified of this new format to ensure appropriate appreciation of its concise nature. Details will appear soon on the EHB website.

Take part in a commentary article on John Tooby quotes

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– by Deb Lieberman, Editor-in-Chief, Evolution & Human Behavior

In honor of John Tooby (1952-2023) and his contributions to our field, members of HBES and invited guests are welcome to pick a quote(s) from any Tooby publication of any year and take up to 350 words to state its importance or its impact on science. The 350-word runway is firm, no matter how many quotes you pull. You need not include a discussion of the quote if you do not wish; you can simply include your favorite quotes or passages. Whatever the case, your all-in word limit including any quotes is a firm 350 words. This is to allow as many HBES members to contribute as possible.

FAQ:

How many submissions per scholar?
One

How many authors per submission?
One. Single author submissions only.

Can the same quote be used by multiple contributors?
Yes. Of all the sentences written, we are hoping there is a wealth of options. However, we also know that people will have different interpretations and comments on similar quotes. The editorial team will organize submissions.

How many references are allowed?
The only references allowed will be for the quote(s) used.

What is the word limit?
350 words. All in. Firm.

How do I submit?
Complete the form using the Qualtrics link or QR code below: https://umiami.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bgA7sgv20cJsvmm

QR code for submissions

Will the submissions be reviewed?
Yes, by members of the Editorial Board. HBES membership will be verified. Submissions from non-HBES members (or individuals who have not been personally invited by the Editor) will be rejected. If you’d like to renew your HBES membership prior to submission, visit: https://www.hbes.com/membership-join/

Where can I find all of John Tooby’s publications?
Here is a link to the Center for Evolutionary Psychology Publication list, where you can find most of John’s publications. (https://www.cep.ucsb.edu/publication/)

When are submissions due?
Submissions are due by March 31st and notification of acceptance will be rolling. The link for submissions will be disabled after this date.

When will the tribute be published?
The editorial team will collect and compile the submissions, with the aim of publishing the collection as a single on-line article in the third or fourth issue of 2024. Details will be sent to contributors.

Deb Lieberman
Editor-in-Chief, EHB

Dates, deadlines, & info about HBES 2024 (Aarhus, Denmark)

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We are fast approaching the 35th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior & Evolution Society in Aarhus, Denmark! It will be held at Aarhus University from May 22-25, 2024. Here are some important dates to know about HBES 2024:

  • Abstract submission deadline: Feb 1st
  • Final abstract acceptance confirmations: March 1st
  • Last day for Early Registration: March 31st
  • Regular Registration begins: April 1st
  • Childcare registration deadline: April 15th
  • Regular Registration ends: May 21st
  • Late Registration begins: May 22nd
  • Conference dates: May 22-25

We have an exciting lineup of plenaries: Brian Nosek will give the keynote, and we will have plenaries by Dorsa Amir, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Nicolas Baumard, Judith Maria Burkart, Joseph Carroll, Jaimie Krems, and Manvir Singh.

Bookmark the conference website for updates and the most recent information.

Looking forward to seeing you in Aarhus!

Evolutionary-friendly job in Social Psychology in Colorado Springs

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The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, has a faculty position available for a Social Psychologist with the Area of Specialization open. HBES member Laith Al-Shawaf is eager for some evolutionary colleagues, so if you’re looking for something in Social Psychology, you should apply!

Here’s the job ad: https://rb.gy/bfkpam

Priority will be tgiven to applications received before Jan 7th, 2024.

Evolutionary faculty job in Oklahoma

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Oklahoma State University’s Psychology Department has a faculty position available in social neuroscience and/or evolutionary approaches to social behavior. Join the existing group of evolutionary researchers at the Oklahoma Center for Evolutionary Analysis (OCEAN)! Applications due Nov 1st.

See here for more information: https://apply.interfolio.com/134660

Tenure-track Anthropology faculty position at Cal Poly

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There’s a tenure-track faculty position in Biomedical Anthropology available at Caly Poly in San Luis Obispo. They’re looking for someone doing research “linking evolution, ecology, biology and culture to aspects of human health, adaptation, wellness and disease”. Start date: Sept 2024. Review of applications begins: Oct 2nd 2023. For more details, see the full job ad here.

 

Special issue of Early Human Development

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Got evolutionary thoughts on development? John Manning & Bernhard Fink are editing a special issue of Early Human Development [IF 2.5] entitled “Biological and Psychological Perspectives on Early Human Development”. Submissions are due April 15th 2024.

This Special Issue invites contributions on topics of early human development from a biological and/or psychological perspective that advance the understanding of human behaviour, health, and socioeconomic outcomes. It aims to integrate traditional approaches and develop new synergies between biology, medicine, and psychology with a focus on early developmental effects such as hormone action, developmental instability and the role of genetics/epigenetics (including twin research) in social inquiry. An adaptationist perspective is welcome but not mandatory. The Special Issue plans to publish ~10-15 articles, which are typically Original Research Papers reporting new data. Review articles and Commentaries may be solicited by the Editors.

See link for more detail.

Two New Jobs at Douglas College (Canada)

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Come join us in the suburbs of Vancouver! Douglas College is a teaching focused, undergraduate institution with opportunities for research. Hiring one Full-time faculty member in Cognitive Psychology and another with Counselling/Clinical Psychology background. More info here. Feel free to contact Laura Dane for more info (danel@douglascollege.ca)