Post-Doc at UC Davis working on the cultural evolution of collective rituals, bad at lists, a third thing.
Some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
https://nicolasrestrep.github.io/restrepo_website/
Nico
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Many explanations of the link between uncertainty and rituals appeal to a need for a sense of agency. Ours is less grand: more variable environments are likely to produce illusory correlations. If there is a framework that can stabilize those early correlations, a ritual can be born!
This is an astounding contribution to our understanding of attitudinal formation, change, and stability. Turgut wrote it as a 3rd year grad student. You should hire him before someone else does.
World is a messed up place but we get all-caps Clint Smith every few years folks. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
(Second South Africa red was daylight robbery)
Worth saying that most of my papers have been collaborations with folks from my grad program. Of course, I am extraordinarily lucky to have been surrounded by them. But this ability to foster collaboration is, above all else, the mark of a successful grad program.
Do believe the hype: Andrés’s work is indeed great!
When I got into grad school, the impulse was to collaborate with the names that drew me there. From day one, @stephenvaisey.com insisted on horizontal collaboration instead. I have no idea if that was good professional advice, but it was pretty solid life advice.
But we don't think there is divine intercession. More variable environments are more likely to produce extraordinary, positive outcomes. The SHG can capitalize on these illusory correlations and a ritual can start.
First paper of the PD out!
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
We argue that we can think about the start of a new collective ritual as a Stag Hunt Game. But a frequency-independent payoff is needed to get it going. In our case, perceived miracles is such a mechanism!
I am a huge fan of "what is this kind of argument and how can you do it right?" papers. I collect them and I've tried to write a couple, and think they can be tremendously useful especially for teaching. A new, useful addition to this set just arrived from @sociologicalsci.bsky.social:
