Welcome to the EvoS Consortium!

EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium Volume 11, Special Issue 1, 2019 Title Acetaminophen Does Not Alter the Early Processing of Emotional Facial Expressions: An Eye-tracking Study Author(s) Gallup, A. C., Gagnon, B. K. L., Rosic, B., & Eldakar, O. T. Abstract A growing body of research has uncovered that acetaminophen, the most commonly used over-the-counter painkilli…

Evolutionary approaches to human behavior often try to “carve nature at its joints.” This phrase, somehow evocative of Pinocchio, means that when we try to describe or classify psychological phenomena, we shouldn’t use just any old arbitrary organization scheme. Rather, we should base our thinking on underlying natural, evolutionarily informed, realities. This principle is especially salient to e…

See previous post I, II, and III in this series, or related posts to this month-long trip here and here. Note in our previous episode that I wasn’t sure if I had meetings set up, with who, or about what when I arrived at Ranomafana. I received a message from Dustin that I had a 10AM appointment, but he had not been able to confirm, so I should just ask for Maya Moore or Pascal Rabeson. When I arr…

See previous post 1 and post 2 in this series, or related posts to this month-long trip here and here. The drive to Ranomafana is about 12 hours. After experiencing the Tana roads, I thought maybe it was close via bad roads, but it’s really 12 hours in a 4WD at relatively high speed but through winding roads. For 12 hours, I was tossed side to side, tires screeching on the road. I was very passiv…

I’ve been jet lagged from the 8-hour time difference and keep waking up at 2:30 AM, unable to go to sleep. After a day or two, I remembered I have Starbucks instant coffees in my bag. I got some hot water from the sink and hazarded a coffee in the middle of the night to get me going enough to get some work done. Later I checked and learned that the water has some dirt in it, but, according to Jur…

William Tooke is a professor and former Chair of Psychology at The State University of New York at Plattsburgh. After receiving his Ph. D. in experimental psychology from The University of Texas at Arlington, William has taught courses in evolutionary psychology, statistics, the history of psychology, and several other areas. His research has focused on the evolutionary psychology of mating decep…

I arrived in Madagascar last Saturday afternoon and was greeted for the first time anywhere by someone holding a sign with my name on it. I’ve arrived! Actually, I have arrived, literally. I wish I had taken a photo. I am here on a diplomatic mission, of sorts. I received a grant from the Wenner Gren Foundation to expand our Anthropology is Elemental program. The program entails posting our lesso…

I spent two weeks in Wilmington, NC to work on an article from our Family and the Field Study with Michaela Howells. Our data look fascinating. It’s not so much remarkable as confirmatory and solid. We surveyed over 1000 anthropology graduate students and professionals about the influence of anthropology on their family planning and family dynamics on their anthropology careers. Given that we are…

“Grand adventure calls and tugs on my heartstrings.” I didn’t say this, but it’s a good start to this post. It’s what my friend Michaela depicted me as saying to my son Lux as he left the house this morning. I am leaving for a month-long trip that includes a few weeks in Madagascar and was sitting at the window watching his brothers at the bus stop and he was kissing me goodbye. “Do you watch us …

EvoS Consortium to become subsidiary of This View of Life! In an effort to optimize forces in our work designed to advance evolution’s place in the modern world, the EvoS Consortium is formally joining forces with – and becoming a subsidiary of – This View of Life (TVOL). TVOL, which is currently engaged in a massive fundraising effort (you can help the cause HERE!), has been a widely successful …

Contrary to the sense of things at the end with the triumph of he-who-shall-not-be-named and the demise of so many beloved friends and celebrities, 2016 was actually a banner friggin’ year for some of us personally, as I began addressing … Continue reading →

Though the end of 2016 was miserable, most of the year was awesome, and it’s important that we have a little perspective. At my house, we have a dinner ritual called “Good Thing/Bad Thing” or GTBT. We each take turns … Continue reading →

Have I started relaxing yet? Everyone asks me this. Do y’all not know me? We just arrived at my in-laws for the holiday, & I’m already thinking about how to fill my days. I don’t relax well. But I am … Continue reading →

This holiday season I’m putting a concerted into being more social. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the irony of teaching about the human social imperative and the struggle many of us have to be social. I … Continue reading →

A few years ago, I’d all but decided I wasn’t going to go to the American Anthropological Association main conference anymore. This was the year it was in San Francisco (111th Annual Meeting, 2012). Ironically, that was a memorable conference. … Continue reading →

I wrote this post last fall but never got around to finishing & posting it. It’s dated but has a few valid points still worth putting out there. I always tell my students that I get more out of our … Continue reading →

Again, not to pat myself on the back, but to suggest to others what you can do to fight back against ignorance. There are protests, join them. There are businesses & organizations that are being attacked, support them. And there … Continue reading →

On Wednesday, the day after our 2017 presidential election, I dreaded having to put on my host face to go out to dinner with Dr. Joseph Graves, our ALLELE speaker for Thursday. I couldn’t really stand the thought of talking … Continue reading →

Coming soon, I will be proud of the publication of a volume called Evolution Education in the American South: Politics, Culture, and Resources in and around Alabama that I edited with Amanda Glaze, Bill Evans, & Laura Reed. The book … Continue reading →

As I’ve written several times in the past (here, for example), the Southeastern U.S. has a spotty record at best at teaching evolution at the K-12 level. There are many many wonderful teachers in the Southeast, but there is also … Continue reading →