Cognitive & evolutionary anthropologist. Postdoc researcher in religious studies @RCC_AU.
Joined February 2019
- Tweets 325
- Following 340
- Followers 452
- Likes 622
22 Photos and videos
Aaron Lightner retweeted
7 Jun 2023
The project I've been working on since Day 0 of grad school is finally published! We find that ecology explains a decent chunk of cultural variation-- across 66 different cultural variables royalsocietypublishing.org/d…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
7 Jun 2023
In those cases, the result is not an "infodemic" but what I have elsewhere called a "marketplace of rationalizations" in which misinformation behaves more like a consumer good than a contagious virus. cambridge.org/core/journals/…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
7 Jun 2023
Is misinformation a dangerous virus? Are we living through an infodemic? Is there a vaccine for misinformation? In this review of Sander van der Linden's (@Sander_vdLinden) new book 'Foolproof', I argue that the answer to these questions is "no". A thread:
bostonreview.net/articles/th…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
27 May 2023
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New paper out in Cognitive Psychology with Ralph Hertwig (@arc_mpib) and Gerd Gigerenzer (@mpib_berlin).
We investigate how participants infer Bayesian posterior inferences based on an analysis of >10,000 human inferences and computer simulations.
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
23 May 2023
Opportunity for a fully funded PhD Research Fellow position (3 year-scholarship) to study the #cross-cultural patterns of #nomadic #pastoral #cooperation on my @ERC_Research project. Deadline 15th of June.👇
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/1…
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In case you haven't seen it (ABM and field study of interdependence). Project led by @adlightner, with @AnnePisor
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
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"[R]eligious narratives, though false or seemingly irrational, often turn out to reflect concerns about behaviors that matter for people's livelihoods. With radical uncertainty, they are often all we have."
-@adlightner cambridge.org/core/journals/…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
27 Mar 2023
More special issue content just dropped! This one from @adlightner @AnnePisor & @ed_hagen
In need-based sharing, sharing is more important than need
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
23 Mar 2023
Need is central to many models of human cooperation including need-based sharing: asking for help only when in need & sharing when asked. But it ends up that even if individuals ask when *not* in need, sharing can still enhance survival for all involved 1/
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
22 Feb 2023
New theory paper on the sociocultural dynamics of medical technologies: I show that when individuals can entertain multiple treatments simultaneously, both ineffective and effective medical treatments may stably coexist:
link.springer.com/article/10…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
9 Feb 2023
HB out today from RCC's BGP and @Theiss_Bendixen!
With contributions from many of the RCC crew including @adlightner and @AnneMauritsen! A stellar group of chapters from @GuessRita @abaimel @WesleyWildman @herebehumans
and more! @BloomsburyBooks @BloomsburyRS @lilymacmahon1
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
30 Jan 2023
1/12 🚨 New publication in @SocialMedia_Soc 🚨 with @Sacha_Altay and @acerbialberto
“Misinformation on Misinformation: conceptual and methodological challenges”
journals.sagepub.com/doi/ful…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
16 Jan 2023
How do people intervene in a dynamic system to learn its causal structure?🔧⏰
In this new Cogn Psych paper, we found people generate causal events that are both informative and simple to interpret. W/@tobigerstenberg, Ralf Mayrhofer, and @NeilBramley
authors.elsevier.com/sd/arti…
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Aaron Lightner retweeted
2 Jan 2023
This is such a cool paper.
Elegant evidence that children sample one possibility out of many and treat it as actual.
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.22…
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11 Jul 2022
All models are wrong, and some are religious: Supernatural explanations as abstract and useful falsehoods about complex realities
zpr.io/t82jgxymuRQS
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19 Dec 2022
New preprint with @AnnePisor & @ed_hagen: psyarxiv.com/cm3ap
🧵: Models of cooperation often highlight that sharing is esp. useful for risk pooling when recipients actually need help
But how strictly does this need-based sharing rule map onto real-world traditions?
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19 Dec 2022
So although need-based sharing is important, the cost of failing to share when someone needs help greatly outweighs the cost of sharing with someone who doesn't
In fieldwork, we also observed people behaving in a way that seems sensitive to these different costs
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19 Dec 2022
There are, of course, many assumptions, alternatives, caveats, etc. that we also discuss in the paper
preprint: psyarxiv.com/cm3ap
github repo: github.com/alightner/needBas…
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