Grégory Fiorio
@gregoryfiorio.bsky.social
PhD Candidate in Cognitive Science at ENS-PSL (Paris)
I investigate the evolutionary and cognitive foundations of morality, punishment and intergroup violence.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/gregoryfiorio/home
I investigate the evolutionary and cognitive foundations of morality, punishment and intergroup violence.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/gregoryfiorio/home
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Why do humans punish? Our new paper, with @manvir.bsky.social, is out in Psychological Science!
With experiments in a small-scale society (Mentawai) & the US, we test whether punitive cognition evolved to deter wrongdoing or restore fairness.
link: tinyurl.com/msrmu7cc
pdf: tinyurl.com/mvprz8fb
With experiments in a small-scale society (Mentawai) & the US, we test whether punitive cognition evolved to deter wrongdoing or restore fairness.
link: tinyurl.com/msrmu7cc
pdf: tinyurl.com/mvprz8fb
May 28, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Why do humans punish? Our new paper, with @manvir.bsky.social, is out in Psychological Science!
With experiments in a small-scale society (Mentawai) & the US, we test whether punitive cognition evolved to deter wrongdoing or restore fairness.
link: tinyurl.com/msrmu7cc
pdf: tinyurl.com/mvprz8fb
With experiments in a small-scale society (Mentawai) & the US, we test whether punitive cognition evolved to deter wrongdoing or restore fairness.
link: tinyurl.com/msrmu7cc
pdf: tinyurl.com/mvprz8fb
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
For the theme of "Cross-Cultural & Ethnographic Perspectives", the Bridging Mental Health Network at Cambridge hosted two brilliant talks.
Check them out for historical easter-eggs in psychiatry + rich story-telling
Talk 1: @kristensyme.bsky.social
youtu.be/-QEarzXEecw?...
🧵
Check them out for historical easter-eggs in psychiatry + rich story-telling
Talk 1: @kristensyme.bsky.social
youtu.be/-QEarzXEecw?...
🧵
Suicide as Social Protest: Ethnographic Evidence from 53 Cultures | Kristen Syme
YouTube video by The Bridging Mental Health Network
youtu.be
May 18, 2026 at 2:27 PM
For the theme of "Cross-Cultural & Ethnographic Perspectives", the Bridging Mental Health Network at Cambridge hosted two brilliant talks.
Check them out for historical easter-eggs in psychiatry + rich story-telling
Talk 1: @kristensyme.bsky.social
youtu.be/-QEarzXEecw?...
🧵
Check them out for historical easter-eggs in psychiatry + rich story-telling
Talk 1: @kristensyme.bsky.social
youtu.be/-QEarzXEecw?...
🧵
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Why do menstrual taboos--restrictions on food prep, ritual participation, and social contact--recur and persist in diverse human societies? In this new paper in Evolution and Human Behavior, I propose a new framework:
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The evolutionary-cognitive foundation and cultural persistence of menstrual taboos in human societies
Menstrual prohibitions—restrictions on food preparation, sex, ritual participation, and contact with valued objects—are widespread across human societ…
sciencedirect.com
May 16, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Why do menstrual taboos--restrictions on food prep, ritual participation, and social contact--recur and persist in diverse human societies? In this new paper in Evolution and Human Behavior, I propose a new framework:
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Higher rates of polygyny are associated with stricter arranged marriages and larger age gaps at first marriage across the hunter-gatherer societies in the Binford and Apostolou datasets. From my talk at HBES
May 16, 2026 at 10:46 AM
Higher rates of polygyny are associated with stricter arranged marriages and larger age gaps at first marriage across the hunter-gatherer societies in the Binford and Apostolou datasets. From my talk at HBES
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Happy to have presented at @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social the work we did with Mia Karabegovic & @hugoreasoning.bsky.social on the moral psychology of intellectual property : moral intuitions about IP are less about protecting ideas, and more about protecting accurate reputation attribution.
May 13, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Happy to have presented at @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social the work we did with Mia Karabegovic & @hugoreasoning.bsky.social on the moral psychology of intellectual property : moral intuitions about IP are less about protecting ideas, and more about protecting accurate reputation attribution.
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Not up for a 15,000 word manuscript about the intellectual history of Man the Hunter?
Fair enough!
Instead, check out my popular article published today in @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/why-m...
Fair enough!
Instead, check out my popular article published today in @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/why-m...
aeon.co
April 28, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Not up for a 15,000 word manuscript about the intellectual history of Man the Hunter?
Fair enough!
Instead, check out my popular article published today in @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/why-m...
Fair enough!
Instead, check out my popular article published today in @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/why-m...
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
I’m pleased to share that our latest study, co-authored with @hugoreasoning.bsky.social , Lou Safra and @coraliechevallier.bsky.social, has been recently published in @pnasnexus.org 🧵
April 21, 2026 at 7:00 PM
I’m pleased to share that our latest study, co-authored with @hugoreasoning.bsky.social , Lou Safra and @coraliechevallier.bsky.social, has been recently published in @pnasnexus.org 🧵
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Excited to launch the website for our EASP pre-conference on Prosocial & Antisocial Behavior: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Methods
📅 June 30 | Strasbourg
⏰ Early bird deadline: April 14
Program: sites.google.com/view/prosocial-and-antisocial/
@easp2026.bsky.social @shuxianjin.bsky.social
📅 June 30 | Strasbourg
⏰ Early bird deadline: April 14
Program: sites.google.com/view/prosocial-and-antisocial/
@easp2026.bsky.social @shuxianjin.bsky.social
April 11, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Excited to launch the website for our EASP pre-conference on Prosocial & Antisocial Behavior: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Methods
📅 June 30 | Strasbourg
⏰ Early bird deadline: April 14
Program: sites.google.com/view/prosocial-and-antisocial/
@easp2026.bsky.social @shuxianjin.bsky.social
📅 June 30 | Strasbourg
⏰ Early bird deadline: April 14
Program: sites.google.com/view/prosocial-and-antisocial/
@easp2026.bsky.social @shuxianjin.bsky.social
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Thrilled to share that our new paper is now out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social: "Who knows what? Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information Search," with @oliviermorin.bsky.social , @hugoreasoning.bsky.social & @tadegquillien.bsky.social!
Link: tinyurl.com/ykyhxcc6
Link: tinyurl.com/ykyhxcc6
March 30, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Thrilled to share that our new paper is now out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social: "Who knows what? Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information Search," with @oliviermorin.bsky.social , @hugoreasoning.bsky.social & @tadegquillien.bsky.social!
Link: tinyurl.com/ykyhxcc6
Link: tinyurl.com/ykyhxcc6
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Zoom out and the big picture is clear: cross-cultural research exploded in the 1960s–70s, dipped in the 1990s, and has been growing steadily ever since.
The graphs are based on 1,290 publications from the Explaining Human Culture database (hraf.yale.edu/ehc/documents) by @hraf755.bsky.social
6/6
The graphs are based on 1,290 publications from the Explaining Human Culture database (hraf.yale.edu/ehc/documents) by @hraf755.bsky.social
6/6
March 24, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Zoom out and the big picture is clear: cross-cultural research exploded in the 1960s–70s, dipped in the 1990s, and has been growing steadily ever since.
The graphs are based on 1,290 publications from the Explaining Human Culture database (hraf.yale.edu/ehc/documents) by @hraf755.bsky.social
6/6
The graphs are based on 1,290 publications from the Explaining Human Culture database (hraf.yale.edu/ehc/documents) by @hraf755.bsky.social
6/6
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
I was wondering which journals most frequently publish cross-cultural research (specifically the one based on ethnographic data from small-scale societies).
The result is not very surprising.
Here's 70 years of the field's publication history in one bar chart race. 📊 #Cross-Cultural
1/6
The result is not very surprising.
Here's 70 years of the field's publication history in one bar chart race. 📊 #Cross-Cultural
1/6
March 24, 2026 at 3:11 PM
I was wondering which journals most frequently publish cross-cultural research (specifically the one based on ethnographic data from small-scale societies).
The result is not very surprising.
Here's 70 years of the field's publication history in one bar chart race. 📊 #Cross-Cultural
1/6
The result is not very surprising.
Here's 70 years of the field's publication history in one bar chart race. 📊 #Cross-Cultural
1/6
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Democracy isn't a modern luxury—it's a political strategy with deep roots.
In our new study for Science Advances, we analyse 40 different societies and develop a framework for measuring human governance along a collective-autocratic axis.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In our new study for Science Advances, we analyse 40 different societies and develop a framework for measuring human governance along a collective-autocratic axis.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The distribution of power and inclusiveness across deep time
Democratic practice in the premodern world was not the exclusive domain of Greece and Rome.
www.science.org
March 19, 2026 at 8:31 AM
Democracy isn't a modern luxury—it's a political strategy with deep roots.
In our new study for Science Advances, we analyse 40 different societies and develop a framework for measuring human governance along a collective-autocratic axis.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In our new study for Science Advances, we analyse 40 different societies and develop a framework for measuring human governance along a collective-autocratic axis.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
A unique prediction of an evolutionary approach is that some puzzling aspects of psych & health are best explained by mismatches of modern environments to the ancestral one. Yet the utility of the mismatch concept has been questioned by @joshtybur.bsky.social & @danielnettle.bsky.social 🧪 #BioAnth 🧵
This week, we talk to @joshtybur.bsky.social about the immune system in your head. 🤯
youtu.be/O0t8WpICTyo
www.podbean.com/eas/pb-x6vk5...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
youtu.be/O0t8WpICTyo
www.podbean.com/eas/pb-x6vk5...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
The Behavioral Immune System with Josh Tybur
YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast)
youtu.be
March 13, 2026 at 7:06 PM
A unique prediction of an evolutionary approach is that some puzzling aspects of psych & health are best explained by mismatches of modern environments to the ancestral one. Yet the utility of the mismatch concept has been questioned by @joshtybur.bsky.social & @danielnettle.bsky.social 🧪 #BioAnth 🧵
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
New publication, and first one as a first author for me! 🥳
Have you heard of the brutal chimpanzee and "hippie" bonobo dichotomy? ☠️🕊️
Today, we report similar aggression magnitudes in 22 captive chimpanzees and bonobos groups - be it all aggression or restricted to contact.
Have you heard of the brutal chimpanzee and "hippie" bonobo dichotomy? ☠️🕊️
Today, we report similar aggression magnitudes in 22 captive chimpanzees and bonobos groups - be it all aggression or restricted to contact.
March 11, 2026 at 6:01 PM
New publication, and first one as a first author for me! 🥳
Have you heard of the brutal chimpanzee and "hippie" bonobo dichotomy? ☠️🕊️
Today, we report similar aggression magnitudes in 22 captive chimpanzees and bonobos groups - be it all aggression or restricted to contact.
Have you heard of the brutal chimpanzee and "hippie" bonobo dichotomy? ☠️🕊️
Today, we report similar aggression magnitudes in 22 captive chimpanzees and bonobos groups - be it all aggression or restricted to contact.
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
How can we study human development over two thousand years?
For most periods and regions, we lack reliable data on income, health, or education. Before 1800, and outside Europe, historical records are extremely fragmentary.
Thread 👇 🧵
For most periods and regions, we lack reliable data on income, health, or education. Before 1800, and outside Europe, historical records are extremely fragmentary.
Thread 👇 🧵
March 10, 2026 at 9:59 AM
How can we study human development over two thousand years?
For most periods and regions, we lack reliable data on income, health, or education. Before 1800, and outside Europe, historical records are extremely fragmentary.
Thread 👇 🧵
For most periods and regions, we lack reliable data on income, health, or education. Before 1800, and outside Europe, historical records are extremely fragmentary.
Thread 👇 🧵
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
🧵 1/4
Last year, Nicolas Baumard and I published a target article in EHB, where we propose that cultural phenomena emerge from feedbacks between evolved psychology and ecological legacies, the same mechanisms at work in any ecosystem:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Last year, Nicolas Baumard and I published a target article in EHB, where we propose that cultural phenomena emerge from feedbacks between evolved psychology and ecological legacies, the same mechanisms at work in any ecosystem:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The ecological approach to culture
The prevailing view in the literature treats cultural dynamics as fundamentally distinct from other ecological processes—governed by a second system o…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 11, 2026 at 7:38 AM
🧵 1/4
Last year, Nicolas Baumard and I published a target article in EHB, where we propose that cultural phenomena emerge from feedbacks between evolved psychology and ecological legacies, the same mechanisms at work in any ecosystem:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Last year, Nicolas Baumard and I published a target article in EHB, where we propose that cultural phenomena emerge from feedbacks between evolved psychology and ecological legacies, the same mechanisms at work in any ecosystem:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Here is a PhD fellowship in one of the best places in the world to study cognition and culture.
1. Cultural phenomenon: writing
2. Cognitive capacity: to detect what is unpredictable
3. Mission: Show how (2) drives the evolution of (1) 😲
4. Methods: you’ll eventually master some powerful ones
1. Cultural phenomenon: writing
2. Cognitive capacity: to detect what is unpredictable
3. Mission: Show how (2) drives the evolution of (1) 😲
4. Methods: you’ll eventually master some powerful ones
CALL: a PhD grant (3 years) to do a PhD with me at @cognitionens.bsky.social on the evolution of graphic codes. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/410213
PhD student grant (3 years) on the evolution of written communication
My team recruits a PhD student to work under the supervision of Olivier Morin on the evolution of written communication, within a project jointly led by Olivier Morin, Hugo Mercier, and Marc Allassonn...
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
March 6, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Here is a PhD fellowship in one of the best places in the world to study cognition and culture.
1. Cultural phenomenon: writing
2. Cognitive capacity: to detect what is unpredictable
3. Mission: Show how (2) drives the evolution of (1) 😲
4. Methods: you’ll eventually master some powerful ones
1. Cultural phenomenon: writing
2. Cognitive capacity: to detect what is unpredictable
3. Mission: Show how (2) drives the evolution of (1) 😲
4. Methods: you’ll eventually master some powerful ones
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
📘 Nouveau livre !
Introduction à la statistique bayésienne avec le logiciel R
Découvrez pas à pas la statistique bayésienne et sa mise en œuvre dans R : théorème de Bayes, MCMC, priors, régression, GLM/GLMM et comparaison/validation de modèles.
Aux éditions Quae 🙏
📷 Crédit photo : Yann Raulet
Introduction à la statistique bayésienne avec le logiciel R
Découvrez pas à pas la statistique bayésienne et sa mise en œuvre dans R : théorème de Bayes, MCMC, priors, régression, GLM/GLMM et comparaison/validation de modèles.
Aux éditions Quae 🙏
📷 Crédit photo : Yann Raulet
March 5, 2026 at 3:32 PM
📘 Nouveau livre !
Introduction à la statistique bayésienne avec le logiciel R
Découvrez pas à pas la statistique bayésienne et sa mise en œuvre dans R : théorème de Bayes, MCMC, priors, régression, GLM/GLMM et comparaison/validation de modèles.
Aux éditions Quae 🙏
📷 Crédit photo : Yann Raulet
Introduction à la statistique bayésienne avec le logiciel R
Découvrez pas à pas la statistique bayésienne et sa mise en œuvre dans R : théorème de Bayes, MCMC, priors, régression, GLM/GLMM et comparaison/validation de modèles.
Aux éditions Quae 🙏
📷 Crédit photo : Yann Raulet
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Recently, van der Stigchel and colleagues posted a provocative commentary suggesting that we should be wary of bots in online behavioral data collection (🧵by @cstrauch.bsky.social here: bsky.app/profile/cstr...). But should we? Here is my response letter osf.io/preprints/ps.... 1/5
March 4, 2026 at 12:51 PM
Recently, van der Stigchel and colleagues posted a provocative commentary suggesting that we should be wary of bots in online behavioral data collection (🧵by @cstrauch.bsky.social here: bsky.app/profile/cstr...). But should we? Here is my response letter osf.io/preprints/ps.... 1/5
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Some have long thought that humans are universally attracted to specific features: think of symmetrical faces. Are these really universal?
@adigitaltanay.bsky.social & Jay explore this and much more with @drboothroyd.bsky.social
youtu.be/skwy9yKkytM
@adigitaltanay.bsky.social & Jay explore this and much more with @drboothroyd.bsky.social
youtu.be/skwy9yKkytM
Are Attractiveness Preferences Universal? | Lynda Boothroyd
YouTube video by The Cognitations Podcast
youtu.be
February 27, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Some have long thought that humans are universally attracted to specific features: think of symmetrical faces. Are these really universal?
@adigitaltanay.bsky.social & Jay explore this and much more with @drboothroyd.bsky.social
youtu.be/skwy9yKkytM
@adigitaltanay.bsky.social & Jay explore this and much more with @drboothroyd.bsky.social
youtu.be/skwy9yKkytM
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
In poverty, do people take more or less risk? Some theories contend that they avoid risk out of caution. Others that they take risks (e.g. crime) out of desperation.
In our new paper in BBS, we show that they are the two sides of the same coin: the desperation threshold.
Peer commentary call soon!
In our new paper in BBS, we show that they are the two sides of the same coin: the desperation threshold.
Peer commentary call soon!
Explaining the paradoxical effects of poverty on risk taking: The Desperation Threshold Model | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Explaining the paradoxical effects of poverty on risk taking: The Desperation Threshold Model
www.cambridge.org
February 23, 2026 at 7:53 PM
In poverty, do people take more or less risk? Some theories contend that they avoid risk out of caution. Others that they take risks (e.g. crime) out of desperation.
In our new paper in BBS, we show that they are the two sides of the same coin: the desperation threshold.
Peer commentary call soon!
In our new paper in BBS, we show that they are the two sides of the same coin: the desperation threshold.
Peer commentary call soon!
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
Humans exhibit an astonishing variety of marriage systems. Sometimes monogamous, other times polygamous, occasionally we even marry ghosts. The diversity can seem to defy any general explanation. In my new piece for Works in Progress, I write about the Darwinian logic behind it. 1/
The market for marriage - Works in Progress Magazine
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good agricultural surplus, must be in want of a wife.
worksinprogress.co
February 19, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Humans exhibit an astonishing variety of marriage systems. Sometimes monogamous, other times polygamous, occasionally we even marry ghosts. The diversity can seem to defy any general explanation. In my new piece for Works in Progress, I write about the Darwinian logic behind it. 1/
Reposted by Grégory Fiorio
CALL: a PhD grant (3 years) to do a PhD with me at @cognitionens.bsky.social on the evolution of graphic codes. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/410213
PhD student grant (3 years) on the evolution of written communication
My team recruits a PhD student to work under the supervision of Olivier Morin on the evolution of written communication, within a project jointly led by Olivier Morin, Hugo Mercier, and Marc Allassonn...
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
February 19, 2026 at 12:13 PM
CALL: a PhD grant (3 years) to do a PhD with me at @cognitionens.bsky.social on the evolution of graphic codes. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/410213