Steve Stewart-Williams

@SteveStuWill

Psychology, evolution, science, etc. The paperback edition of my second book, The Ape That Understood the Universe, hit the shelves in 2019.

United Kingdom
Joined April 2009

Tweets

You blocked @SteveStuWill

Are you sure you want to view these Tweets? Viewing Tweets won't unblock @SteveStuWill

  1. Pinned Tweet

    It's out! The paperback edition of my book, THE APE THAT UNDERSTOOD THE UNIVERSE, featuring a new foreword by . You can read the first chapter here: ...and here's a sample of reactions to the book... 👇

    Undo
  2. One of the most important events in the history of the planet – an event that caused forests to turn into fields, skyscrapers to sprout from the ground, and footprints to appear on the moon. And we don't really know what drove it! Figure:

    Undo
  3. An aluminium-foil boat floating in sulfur hexafluoride: a colourless gas that's heavier than air (and that makes your voice deeper if you breathe it in – it's basically the opposite of helium).

    Undo
  4. Undo
  5. 15 hours ago

    2- Other methods for estimating heritability don’t rely on the EEA, or on twins at all, but on random variation in the extent of genomic sharing between siblings. And guess what! Heritability doesn’t go away!

    Show this thread
    Undo
  6. 15 hours ago

    1- Twins are regularly misclassified by their parents & others, which creates an opportunity to test whether their phenotypic similarity tracks their actual genetic relatedness or their social identity as MZ or DZ. It’s the former (by )

    Show this thread
    Undo
  7. 15 hours ago

    I can think of few things less “lively” than rehashing a conversation about the EEA, especially since twin studies are no longer the major workhorses of psychiatric genetics. BUT lest other people be confused that this is still actually a contentious issue....

    Show this thread
    Undo
  8. Another viral animal video that makes me wonder whether psychologists have been seriously underestimating the cognitive abilities of our furry cousins.

    Undo
  9. The evolution of intelligence in humans and other great apes, estimated by blood flow to the brain. All the great apes have gotten smarter since our last common ancestor; we've just taken the trend much further.

    Undo
  10. Ants are some of the most bizarre, fascinating creatures on the planet.

    Undo
  11. An important study and inspiring finding on how to reduce bigotry by "deep canvassing" and giving people "grace," rather than anger or shame. From and , summarized by :

    Undo
  12. 1 fascinating study Klein quotes found that “priming white college students to think about the concept of white privilege led them to express more racial resentment in subsequent surveys.” Anti-racist indoctrination actually feeds racism—tribalism deepens

    Undo
  13. A pufferfish deflating. When threatened, pufferfish rapidly suck in enough water to make themselves much larger and harder to eat: a great big inedible ball. As a backup plan, most also contain tetrodotoxin, which for humans is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide. Cute, though!

    Undo
  14. A man was sitting alone, on a bench in a park, singing Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer by himself. By the end, the entire park joined along to sing with him. (🎥)

    Show this thread
    Undo
  15. Feb 2

    Natural selection builds mechanisms that human engineers still struggle to match. Exhibit A: The neural structures underpinning head stabilization in this hawk. (Head stabilization has the same function as image stabilization in cameras: to maintain a steady view despite motion.)

    Undo
  16. Feb 1

    A great way to realise the sheer quantity of information our 🧠 seamlessly processes when we do a “simple” task like driving a car. This is what the Tesla autopilot sees using a neural network which took 70,000 GPU hours to train. ht

    Undo
  17. Cathy Young on one of the most contentious subjects in social science: partner violence by women HT

    Undo
  18. Feb 1

    This is the kind of muddled conclusion people reach when they start thinking of groups of people as individuals, rather than focusing on actual individuals: It's OK for this woman to abuse this man because *other* men abused other women in the past.

    Undo
  19. Jan 6

    Here’s a robust psychological effect that does not wilt under replication scrutiny. Kurt Lewin noticed it in the 1930s: making public commitments “freezes” attitudes in place. So saying something dumb makes you a bit dumber. It becomes harder to correct yourself. Tweeters beware.

    Undo
  20. Feb 1

    The fact that hundreds of millions of people have been spared the agony of losing a child - or of dying themselves as children - is surely the single greatest humanitarian achievement of our species.

    Undo
  21. Feb 1

    “La Psicología ha hecho mucho menos progreso del que podría haber hecho porque muchos psicólogos saben muy poco acerca de otros animales”. -Steve Stewart-Williams

    Undo

Loading seems to be taking a while.

Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

    You may also like

    ·