Prof Nichola Raihani
Professor & Author
Auckland & UCL
Books: THE SOCIAL INSTINCT (2021) || THE THINKING ANIMAL (2027, ✍🏼)
Likes cycling.
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniAcademics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniThis study finds that people vary in their motives for punishment. Punishment motives are predicted by personality, social preferences, political and religious views, and self-reported strategies. @scottclaessens.bsky.social @nicholaraihani.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s44...
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniSlashing all Marsden grants to social science and humanities another Judith Collins legacy www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniIt's hiring season at @iast.fr! - 2y research postdoc contract - Full autonomy, you are your own PI - Awesome multidisciplinary environment - All social and behavioral sciences welcome - Seed funding for projects and workshops - Gorgeous city in the south of France www.iast.fr/research-fel...
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniIn general I think it's hard to combat scientific misinformation when some of the best research is locked behind an academic paywall, while lots of nonsense gets published free for everyone to read in predatory journals.
- The first draft is DONE.
- I wonder how things would be if the mining bosses and government officials had to raise *their* kids in these lead-poisoned environments.
- This is a complete dereliction of responsibility from all involved. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
- This is a complete dereliction of responsibility from all involved. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniAt @ishe-society.bsky.social, we are looking for someone to review @mgurven.bsky.social new book, "Seven decades" for Human Ethology. It looks terribly interesting! DM/email for details (and to get a hard copy 😊) @princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniUCDavis Psych is hiring an Assistant Professor in Human Cognition or Cognitive Neuroscience 🧠✨ Come join a vibrant, collaborative dept and live in a fun college town near Sacramento, San Francisco, Napa, and Lake Tahoe. Applications due Oct.21. Please share widely! recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07300
- Reposted by Prof Nichola Raihani📖 Our letter of reply to 'pseudosocial' cognition is now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Led by the talented @srazavi.bsky.social + written with @vaughanbell.bsky.social, Peter Dayan, @nicholaraihani.bsky.social, Michael Moutoussis #NeuroPsychSky
- A recently proposed «pseudosocial cognition approach» aims at our previous work on the social dimension of paranoia. The shortcomings of their article raise important questions on how we all connect behavioural models to neural data. Our letter of response: osf.io/preprints/ps... summary 🧵👇
- Our response to Corlett & co on what they call 'pseudo-social' paranoia is now online in TICS. We hope this clarifies some persistent misunderstandings of our work and approach. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- University of Auckland is hiring a lecturer in social psychology. smrtr.io/tfSY- Please share with your networks.
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola Raihani🧠 What?! A meeting just on disgust?! Yes!! 📍 @iast.fr, France | 🗓 Dec 4–5, 2025 💥 Keynotes by Paul Rozin @upenn.edu, @cr-amo.bsky.social, Philip Powell @sheffielduni.bsky.social & Cindy Kam 🌍 From Psychology to Politics, Biology & beyond 🎓 Abstract submissions until Aug 31: forms.gle/QBmkUB3aLDjY...
- An exciting event for Aucklanders in November; pls share Talk: Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain 👩🎓 Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 📍University of Auckland 📆 Tues 11/11/25| 1815 Free but ticketed. www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/inventing-... @sjblakemore.bsky.social
- Hive mind: I'm writing a book chapter called Utter Bastards – intended to showcase the ways in which animals (yes, incl. us) can be 'nasty'. I've got lots of the obvious candidates e.g. siblicide, infanticide, sexual coercion etc. anything *unusual* you think should be in there?
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniBBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.
- New data on friendship in baboons & infant survival upends a classic result. For years, we've thought that more social females had more surviving offspring, but this suggests that the result stemmed from reverse causality: females with infants become more social. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniDirector at Max Planck - a unique position! The Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships is open now and can be submitted by the 31st of October 2025. ➡️ mpg.de/directors - Please share the Open Call among potential candidates.
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola Raihani🚨 Calling all dog behavior & cognition researchers - ManyDogs Project is launching ManyDogs 2! 🔍🐕🦺We're studying overimitation: Do dogs copy irrelevant actions just b/c their favorite human does them? Email manydogsproject2@gmail.com to collaborate globally and contribute to reproducible science!
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- My colleague Quentin Atkinson wrote this piece - How Not To Run a University. It is an insanely good read about how managerialism is destroying universities. Make time for it. Talk about it. Share it. quentinatkinson.substack.com/s/how-not-to...
- @carlbergstrom.com I think you might enjoy this - draws on your book in parts.
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- This is alarming. A major function of a university is to assess & report student quality (via grades) - info that is helpful for future employers. LLMs (and the transactional nature of higher ed) both make that increasingly difficult. And now Canvas may supplant us anyway.
- Out of curiosity I wanted to know how the massive LMS Instructure (company that runs Canvas) is using the massive amounts of data it collects on students. Oh. (This article is nominally not a press release?) www.forbes.com/sites/rayrav...
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- TIL that the average romantic kiss transfers approximately 80 million (!) bacteria. You're welcome. 😗 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniUsing time series graphs to make causal claims be like
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniYour next Fall read, my new book: SEVEN DECADES: HOW WE EVOLVED TO LIVE LONGER Longevity is shaped by our evolutionary past—imagine aging as opportunity rather than burden. Out Sept 16, preorder w/ code PUP30 for 30% discount: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... @princetonupress.bsky.social
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniA recently proposed «pseudosocial cognition approach» aims at our previous work on the social dimension of paranoia. The shortcomings of their article raise important questions on how we all connect behavioural models to neural data. Our letter of response: osf.io/preprints/ps... summary 🧵👇
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniWant to make nice graphs with me, starting this summer? I am hiring for two PhD positions at the University of Witten/Herdecke.
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniWhat an extraordinary, beautiful thing. Sometimes the only sensible response to scientific discovery is wonderment and awe.
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniHere you go: an absolute beast of a starter pack, with many of the UK's most prominent humanists on it. Includes scientists, historians, philosophers, public figures, the New Humanist editorial team and Humanists UK staff. A network for reason and decency. go.bsky.app/PTC4j2dat://did:plc:nesbohibqamc3bdlowcrpdsl/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lb5agy5rb726
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- Life goal unlocked. Spotted in Gower st Waterstones. Thanks to my UCL spies for keeping tabs on things 🕵️
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniHarvard today, your institution tomorrow. It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America. All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniMy book SHAMANISM: THE TIMELESS RELIGION will be out on May 20, 2025! Shamanism characterized the earliest religions, echoes in often unappreciated ways in the world around us, and will long outlive us. Pre-order it here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/730339...
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola Raihani🧵New paper out in Cognition Why do people moralize harmless carnal sins (e.g. gluttony, masturbation)? @danielnettle.bsky.social & I find that these behaviors activate reciprocity-based moral judgment—no need for a distinct "purity" module. 50 days free link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1l18D2Hx2-...
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- This is just 🤯. Feel so bad for all who have been and are being affected by this wilful destruction of science and knowledge in the US.
- Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature. go.nature.com/44Ugf9V
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- This is a '10 common mistakes' document that I give to students submitting a thesis / written assignment. Any majors ones that I've missed?!
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniAre dance & infant-directed song human universals? Like many people, I've long thought so. But in a new paper in Current Biology, Kim Hill & I report that the Northern Aché (Paraguay) lacked both behaviors, likely losing them after cultural collapse. Open-access link: www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniI am hiring a new Lab Manager to help run the NYU Center for Conflict & Cooperation. We start reviewing apps on MAY 1st and it pays over $58,000. Please share with anyone who might be interested! Please apply here: apply.interfolio.com/166620 See more details below:
- Ozempic is really interesting, mechanistically. Check out the list of things, other than eating, that it reduces. Seems to inhibit a whole range of compulsive behaviours, via its impact on the dopaminergic system.
- Small announcement. Book 2 (which is not yet complete) has a title. THE THINKING ANIMAL: What Other Minds Reveal About Our Own Writing is picking up speed (finally). I’m psyched about it - can’t wait to share more. 📚 🤓 🧠
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola Raihani1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world. I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.
- I think about this often. How many more times in your life are you going to see your besties? And (if youre lucky and they’re still here) your parents. Make it count. waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-...
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- On ordo amoris, JD Vance, and what we owe each other medium.com/@nicholaraih...
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- Reposted by Prof Nichola RaihaniDoes the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):
- Baboons show no evidence of visual self-recognition in a novel mark/mirror test. I especially liked the anecdotal observations, suggesting that the baboons understood the mirror's reflective properties but not twigging that the reflection was *them* royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
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