How did belief in harmful magic come to be so widespread the world over? In their recent article, Planer and Sterelny argue that, ironically, the road to sorcery is paved with shamanistic intent. hbes.com/sorcery-an-origins-…

When people overestimate sexual interest, what has gone wrong? In a new article, Samara explain how expectations, cue discrimination, perceived error costs, and reporting can produce similar judgments, and how researchers can distinguish them. hbes.com/seeing-interest-tha…

Possession is nine-tenths of the law – but maybe not for infants. Our new study finds that infants expect larger agents to win territorial conflicts, yet show no expectation or preference that whoever had something first will keep it. Prior possession – a cue both humans and non-human animals use to settle conflicts over resources – doesn't yet seem to guide infants' expectations or social preferences. hbes.com/possession-is-nine-…

The MindCORE Research Fellowship at UPenn is now accepting applications! 🧠 Topic: Human intelligence & behavior 🗓️ Deadline: December 1, 2026 hbes.com/mindcore-research-f… #Postdoc #CognitiveScience

Young children put almost everything in their mouths, at a time when they’re especially vulnerable to infection. A new study mapping 39 germ-related behaviors from birth to age 10 finds key shifts around ages 2 and 4, and asks whether early exploration might be worth the risk. hbes.com/why-and-when-are-yo…

Humans have long relied on cooperation to cope with unpredictability. A study in rural Bangladesh found that people in tightly connected moneylending networks were more willing to take risks, while those who could turn to more households for food and household items were less willing. These findings suggest that human decision-making under risk may have evolved to respond flexibly to the support available from others. hbes.com/how-social-connecti…

New research on body attractiveness finds that “average” is not the whole story: while typical bodies do tend to be seen as attractive, judgments of typicality and attractiveness show different patterns. Typicality is more closely tied to how close a body is to the population average, whereas attractiveness depends on whether a body shows specific departures from the average, such as more pronounced curvature or muscularity. The pattern held across American and Chinese samples, for both naturally varying bodies and morphed caricatures. hbes.com/averageness-isnt-en…

Contrary to popular belief that they are muddled fantasists, children are naturalistic thinkers when left to their own devices. But they learn about supernatural possibilities, such as divine agency and the afterlife, from others in their family and immediate community. hbes.com/children-doubt-magi…

A study of 80,047 heterosexual adults in 92 countries found that greater openness to casual sex was associated with reporting fewer children within countries. The findings challenge its use as a simple marker of a “fast” life history strategy. hbes.com/casual-sex-and-the-…

A long-standing debate in anthropology concerns whether people in other societies wholeheartedly believe that magic is an effective technology. Drawing on recent work in political science and psychology, Levy et al. argue that this debate should consider whether informants’ reports are sincere and accurate. Levy at al. suggest that people in small-scale societies - and those in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies too - may exhibit a range of attitudes to magic: wholehearted belief (and disbelief), a more symbolic attitude, and even no fixed attitude at all. hbes.com/who-really-believes…

Do the stories a society tells shape how it treats nature? Using natural language processing on a catalogue of traditional folktales from around 600 societies, Bonikowski et al. measure not just how often nature appears but whether it acts or is acted upon. Groups whose folktales cast nature as an agent express more support for environmental conservation today, and the places they live have better environmental conditions. hbes.com/when-nature-has-age…

New research shows that people want same-sex friends who are physically attractive and capable of producing resources as a hunter-gatherer, suggesting that humans have evolved friend preferences. Men were more likely than women to offer their contact information to a stranger after a half-hour conversation, suggesting that men have a lower threshold for making new friends. hbes.com/what-do-people-want…