Olympia L K Campbell
@olkcampbell.bsky.social
Research Fellow @ Institute of Advanced Studies Toulouse. PhD from UCL. Human behavioural evolution. Researching kinship, honour, and gender-biased outcomes Occasionally writing pop science and misc https://sites.google.com/view/olympialkcampbell/about
Conference update emails for #HBES2026 and #CESRabat will be sent soon. In the meantime, updated programs are live on both conference websites: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/hbes2026 airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026 Check them out! @ces2026.bsky.social @hbes2026.bsky.social
Does social media cause mental health to decline? Wrote about the lack of clear cut evidence for @UnHerd.com unherd.com/2026/04/the-...
The case against social media bans
unherd.com
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
Humanity’s oldest known cave art has been discovered in Sulawesi 🎨🇮🇩 theconversation.com/humanitys-ol...
Humanity’s oldest known cave art has been discovered in Sulawesi
People were creating cave art in Indonesia 67,800 years ago – before modern humans reached Australia.
theconversation.com
Applications for our upcoming Summer School have been extended until January 15! 🤝 Apply now: www.tse-fr.eu/toulouse-sum... @olkcampbell.bsky.social @maximederex.bsky.social @lfitouchi.bsky.social @cmolho.bsky.social @ccavaille.bsky.social
Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences Application
Application to the Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences taking place from May 25th to June 19th, 2026 in Toulouse, France Application deadline: January 15th, 2026 Applicants will be ...
tse-fr.eu
📢 Apply to our (2-year) research fellowships at @iast.fr Join a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and indisciplinary group of scholars in Toulouse, walkable/cyclable pink city of chocolatines in the South of France. Deadline: November 15, 2025. www.iast.fr/research-fel...
Research Fellowships
Each year, IAST invites applications for post-doctoral Research Fellowships, which offer candidates an opportunity to devote themselves full-time to their research at the start of their careers. Fello...
iast.fr
Check out the new 'most read' tab at EHS (Evolutionary Human Sciences), currently topped by this paper by @olkcampbell.bsky.social et al on sex ratio and violence against women
Ruth Mace@ruthmace.bsky.social · last yr.Skewed sex ratios correlate with violence against women from spouses, boyfriends and in-laws, but less so for honour-based violence from natal family @olkcampbell.bsky.social Maheen Pracha @ruthmace.bsky.social | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Simplistic stories about the dangers of polygamy can be compelling & intuitive, but what is the evidence that monogamous marriage is advantageous for society? theconversation.com/rethinking-p...
Rethinking polygamy – new research upends conventional thinking about the advantages of monogamous marriage
Simplistic stories about the dangers of polygamy can be compelling and intuitive. But new research suggests some arguments about its harms don’t hold up.
theconversation.com
So pleased to have won this award. Thank you @ceciliapad.bsky.social @gregoryfiorio.bsky.social @ruthmace.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social
Human Behavior & Evolution Society@humbehevosoc.bsky.social · last yr.The winners of the HBES Margo Wilson Award (best paper in E&HB the previous year) are Olympia Campbell, Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Gregory Fiorio, & Ruth Mace for the paper “Genetic markers of cousin marriage and honour cultures”. Congratulations! doi.org/10.1016/j.ev...
So brilliant this piece by @ceciliapad.bsky.social about how human societies have often been so flexible that political hierarchies can change with the seasons, literally. www.sapiens.org/biology/fora...
How Societies Morph With the Seasons
An anthropologist chronicles radical changes foragers undertake seasonally—and how the rigidity of industrialized societies is an anomaly.
sapiens.org
Made an attempt to add some nuance to the recent debates on cousin marriage unherd.com/2025/04/stop...
Stop worrying about cousin marriage
unherd.com
We have made it to Lake Turkana @ceciliapad.bsky.social @asociacionbiomas.bsky.social
So much in here incl: "five marriages in which both partners descend from the founding female. However, these partners have no recent relatedness...suggesting the people had a deep knowledge of their own genealogies...used to guide marital arrangements among a pool of related groups" rdcu.be/d6m8T
Continental influx and pervasive matrilocality in Iron Age Britain
Nature - An analysis of ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA shows evidence of matrilocal communities in Iron Age Britain.
rdcu.be
Why do 70% of Pashtuns say that honour killings are justified? The UNFPA estimates that 5000 women are killed every year over ‘honour’. Is this related to cousin marriage? Tremendous new paper, combining surveys & DNA! www.ggd.world/p/does-cousi...
The funniest part in this has to be Angus Deaton answering the question on whether there is a theory that is widely supported by his peers but which he considers total bunkum with: "that causality can be inferred from data"
The Fence@thefence.bsky.social · 2y agoWe return to ask some stupid questions of the smartest people on Earth and, once more, our Nobelists oblige. www.the-fence.com/nobel-endeav...
Flattered to have produced a real LOL. Have a read of my piece in @thefence.bsky.social and all the other lolworthy bits.
Harriet Fitch Little @harrietfl.ft.com · 2y agoOne of maybe twenty lines in new @thefence.bsky.social that made me laugh out loud while waiting for a 1.5hr delayed doctor’s appointment (what I’m saying is, I was not primed for laughter, it is a VERY funny magazine)
Issue 22 is here 🧊 With writing from @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social, Clive Martin, Gary Grimes, @franciscogarciadf.bsky.social, @natalie-berry.com, Stephen Smith, Falty DL, @williamasclarke.bsky.social, Olympia Campbell & more www.the-fence.com/shop/
interesting to see some of the easy, soundbite length explanations for falling birthrates challenged with counter-examples. no definitive answers found here, but I always enjoy a good read in the category of “this seems obvious, but is it?”
Olympia L K Campbell@olkcampbell.bsky.social · 2y agoAdding to the noise on why birth rates are falling - a question that continues to stump the human evolutionary sciences unherd.com/2024/12/the-...
Adding to the noise on why birth rates are falling - a question that continues to stump the human evolutionary sciences unherd.com/2024/12/the-...
The truth about the fertility crisis
unherd.com
We had heard about the challenges posed by motherhood within academia, but what about the previous stage? @ecfreewoman.bsky.social & I wrote our story for @science.org on how the academic system makes it almost impossible for women to even plan for a family ❤️🩹: www.science.org/content/arti...
As women in academia, having children can feel impossible. Talking about it makes us feel less alone
The struggle is “balancing their careers not just with motherhood, but with what comes before: relationships and planning for a family,” these postdocs write
science.org
We’ve extended the deadline for abstract submissions to the #EHBEA2025 conference (of course we know you’re still running your analyses😉)! New deadline: 16/12 www.ehbea2025.com @ehbea.bsky.social @ehbea2025.bsky.social #BioAnth #CultEvo #EvPsych
a cartoon sheep says `` you 're welcome '' while standing next to another sheep .
Alt: Timmy from Shaun the Sheep says ``you're welcome''
media.tenor.com
I suppose my first post should promote my new paper on cousin marriage and honour cultures. Combining genetic data with survey data on honour cultures we show that the more a population has practised cousin marriage, the stronger the honour culture. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Genetic markers of cousin marriage and honour cultures
Honour cultures, characterized by violent responses to perceived threats to personal or family honour, are widespread. Honour killings, one of the man…
sciencedirect.com
