Galton Institute Newsletter Issue 80
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ISSN 1359-9321 The Galton Institute NEWSLETTER Galtonia candicans Issue Number 80 Summer 2013 supervised by their Science Master, Contents was in Issue No. 78. Professor Antho- EDITORIAL ny Edwards offers a more mature and wide sweeping account. They all agree Editorial 1 it is an excellent book. In this issue we mourn the death Robert Edwards 1 and celebrate the life and works of Obituary Bob Edwards in a short obituary to Robert Edwards European Human add to that in Newsletter No 75 of 27 September, 1925 - 10 April, 2013 Behaviour and Spring 2011. I shall be delighted if Evolution Conference members wish to add their own Professor Sir Robert Edwards, CBE, 2013 2 tributes and if there are enough FRS died on 10th April 2013. He was contributions we can have a special a longstanding member of the Galton Early Pregnancy and issue. Institute and gave the 1982 Galton Lecture which was most prescient: he childbearing 4 The account of the 1st Tarragona Laterality Conference is an example of explained the difficulties of research where diverse disciplines which do in an unsupported field without First International not normally meet come together and dwelling on the active resistance he Tarragona Laterality encountered. He devoted much time may discover new concepts where the Conference 5 cusps of their fields touch. As a to discussing the ethics of his work; thwarted sinistral I have a personal his thoughts are profound and antici- Galton Institute interest. pate much of what has occurred since. The magisterial account of his life by Conference 2013 6 The report of the African Society of Professor Martin Johnson was Human Genetics meeting in Accra is published in the 75th Newsletter of African Society of tantalizingly brief, but its published Spring 2011; this provides the details Human Genetics 7 proceedings will make up for that. normally found in an obituary. The third conference supported by Sir Robert altered the way people Book Review 8 the Institute is that of the EHBEA in live by solving the problems behind in Amsterdam in March 2013 and is also Published by: -vitro fertilization. He provided hope reported in this issue. With over for the 10% of all couples who are The Galton Institute three full days of papers and presen- infertile. So far over five million 19 Northfields Prospect tations this will also benefit from full children have been born by IVF and Northfields publication and may expand upon the the research interest spawned by this LONDON SW18 1PE findings on reproductive timing and technique has led to refinements and childhood adversity which Stephanie a different approach to fertilization. Telephone: 020-8874 7257 www.galtoninstitute.org.uk Clutterbuck also discusses in her Thereby he brought joy and happiness personal report. as well as life to millions of people General Secretary: I make no apology for a second worldwide; few can hope to achieve Mrs Betty Nixon review of Tom Blaney's book The that in their lifetime. Chief Sea Lion's Inheritance. The Newsletter Editor: first, by two talented six-formers Geoffrey Vevers Dr Geoffrey Vevers GALTON INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER 1 SUMMER 2013 read. Gilbert Roberts presented on After the coffee break, Arno Riedl cooperation and reputation-building showed us how competition for part- The European Human behaviour as a social signal for part- ners can sustain cooperation in Behaviour and Evolution ners. The morning session was then groups of participants playing the split into two concurrent sessions prisoner’s dilemma game. Lars Pen- Conference 2013 with Caroline Uggla speaking about ke, using a 3D body and face scanner, markers of parental investment in found that participant’s physical dif- Sub-Saharan Africa, and their rela- ferences were either marginally pre- The 8th Annual European Human tion to children’s outcomes, while dictive (men) or not predictive Behaviour and Evolution Association Kenny Smith presented models (women) of certain social personality conference was held at the Vrije Uni- relating to both the learnability and traits. Iris Holzleitner showed us versiteit (VU) University in Amster- expressivity of language, and how evidence that male masculinity, dam from March 24th-27th, 2013 different social structures predict one weight, and height, as assessed (organized by Mark van Vugt, being favoured over the other. Paul through 3D rotating face models, pre- Fleur Thomése, Josh Tybur, and Mathews then investigated whether dicted perceptions of their masculini- Thomas Pollet, as well as numer- subtle primes in the form of survey ty and dominance, but not health. ous student volunteers). question ordering could have effects Following the talks, an interesting on human reproductive decision discussion of the future of open ac- There were over 200 registered making. Steije Hofhuis then dis- cess publishing took place. Rebecca attendees and a packed programme cussed the viral nature of witch perse- Sear, Fiona Routley, Peter including five plenaries, 42 talks, 95 cutions. Susan Schaffnit presented Nijkamp, and Kristen Hawkes posters, and one New Investigator her findings that living with ones’ were the panel members providing Award Winner presentation. Funding parents hinders a woman’s overall their views on the future of open ac- was generously provided by the De- fitness, but promotes earlier first cess publishing in the field of evolu- partment of Social and Organisation- births. In the other session, Dominic tion and human behaviour. al Psychology within the Faculty of Mitchell showed us a model predict- Psychology and Pedagogical Sciences ing that in certain contexts, listening Day 3 to gossip may be favoured even when at the VU, the Department of Sociolo- The morning began with Simon it is likely to be low in veracity. gy within the Faculty of Social Scienc- Gächter’s plenary, where he synthe- es at the VU, and the Galton Institute. sised research findings from behav- NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor After lunch, we heard about Dan- ioural economics. Next, Ulf Tölch Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) and iel Taylor’s model on excludability showed us that when individuals are Springer Publishers supported the of resources, with food sharing and confronted with different types of session on open access publishing. warfare by the Ache and Turkana information, i.e. social vs. individual, providing evidence that reciprocation in a social decision-making context, Day 1 may yet be able to fully explain hu- they behave in a less-than optimal man cooperation. On a very different way than predicted by Bayesian mod- On Sunday evening, Joe Henrich topic, Poppy Mulvaney showed us elling. Afterwards, Dave Mallpress was the first plenary speaker of the that a man’s facial masculinity can presented a potential model to ex- conference, with a fascinating intro- alter perceiver’s willingness to pre- plain variations in risk-seeking be- spective of gene-culture coevolution sent fair offers in an ultimatum game, haviour. There were again two con- in humans and the evolution of hu- with some cross-cultural differences current sessions. In the first, Anto- man cooperation. noted between the UK and US. Han- nio Silva (the Best Student Presen- nah Cornish examined how a diffu- tation Winner) told us about context Day 2 sion chain using learned sequences of dependent cooperation as measured After the official opening (by Mark the popular 80’s pattern-learning by the ‘lost letter technique’. Max- van Vugt, the rector of the VU Uni- game ‘Simon’ inevitably decreased in ime Derex then went on to discuss versity Lex Bouter, and the presi- complexity within a few generations, how process-copying produced better dent of EHBEA, Robert Barton), likening it to language systematicity. outcomes than either product- the morning plenary was given by Michael Price concluded the ses- copying or individual learning in a Cecelia Heyes in which she likened sion with a study showing that in in- virtual fishing-net making task. The how humans acquire their ability to dividuals and across US states, when first session concluded with Lucas understand others’ thoughts through women are financially dependent on Molleman, who examined the indi- cultural and social learning, to the their partners, anti-promiscuity sen- vidual differences in social learning processes involved in learning to timent increases. strategies used by participants across SUMMER 2013 2 GALTON INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER four different, repeated laboratory mental plasticity hypothesis is not plicity as opposed to becoming more games. Meanwhile, in the second supported in a Finnish population complex. Cristina Moya then pre- concurrent session Ton Groothuis using a longitudinal dataset, by pre- sented her findings on inter-group explained that left-handers do not senting findings that individuals with prejudice and beliefs through an evo- appear to have any combat ad- greater early life adversity were more lutionary lens. The last talk of this vantages and are not overrepresented affected (lower survival and repro- session was by Fredrick Jansson, in pre-industrial societies high in ductive success) by subsequent fam- who presented a mathematical model homicide, thereby challenging the ine in later life. Bringing the presen- highlighting factors needed for the ‘fighting hypothesis’. Subsequently, tations of day 3 to a close, Emily successful merging of cultures. Ferenc Kocsor presented on Emmott presented longitudinal da- Martjin Egas started the second whether adult’s and children’s at- ta showing that the negative effects session by showing us that when peo- tachment and family experiences can on the educational attainment and ple judge whether to reciprocally dictate the preference for faces of behaviour in children due to step- help someone, they are more likely to strangers vs. faces manipulated to father presence could stem from the trust their own personal experience resemble their parents. Lene Aarøe step-father’s lower investment in rather than other’s experiences with concluded this session presenting her those children.