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Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Modern Reanalysis of McManus’ Genetic Model of Handedness

Tomer Oron, Rony Karstadt, Yoav Ram

Published: 2025-10-13
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

We replicate and critically evaluate McManus’ (1985) single-locus genetic model of handedness, which remains influential in laterality research. Using the original familial and twin datasets, we reproduce McManus’ parameter estimates while correcting reporting errors and miscalculations. Our reproduction confirms that the model is reproducible but reveals sensitivity to dataset inconsistencies [...]

Challenges faced by ecologists: gender-based perceptions throughout the stages of the academic career in Brazil

Ana Paula Lula Costa, Julia Rosa Matias Ciccheto, Myrna Elis Ferreira Santos, et al.

Published: 2025-10-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Although women often outnumber men in the early stages of academic careers in ecology, they remain significantly underrepresented in senior positions. In Brazil, women comprise the majority of graduate students in ecological sciences but hold fewer senior academic roles, receive less research funding, and face greater obstacles to visibility and recognition. To understand the factors contributing [...]

Global biodiversity measurement to meet scale-dependent needs and opportunities

Walter Jetz, Marissa Balfour, Sean Breyer, et al.

Published: 2025-10-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Business, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

In the face of rapid ecological decline, biodiversity information is essential for safeguarding life on Earth. Although this information is increasingly valued by governments, businesses, and other stakeholders, it remains insufficiently accessible and usable. Because the rarity and functions of biodiversity vary greatly across land- and seascapes, the global and local ecological and social [...]

Women's Role in Elasmobrnach Fishery in Indonesia

Niomi Pridina, Muhammad Ichsan

Published: 2025-09-29
Subjects: Animal Studies, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology

Women play a significant role in the fisheries chain, particularly in trade and processing, yet they are still not adequately acknowledged. Indonesia is the world's largest shark fishing country, with an average annual production exceeding 100,000 tons. The shark fishery, on its right, is a controversial and often misunderstood topic, not to mention the involvement of vulnerable groups in the [...]

Bridging Knowledge Systems to Guide Natural Resource Decision-Making

Finn Danielsen, Mark Nuttall, Naima El bani Altuna, et al.

Published: 2025-09-24
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

International agreements call for inclusion of Indigenous and local knowledge in resource management, yet practical approaches remain underdeveloped. We argue that knowledge co-assessment offers a feasible pathway. Drawing on examples from practice in the Arctic, we provide guidance for equitable engagement, communication, and scaling, ensuring legitimacy, inclusivity, and actionable governance.

Feasibility of heart rate variability analysis for welfare assessment in dolphins: a preliminary report

Yumi Shimozato

Published: 2025-09-24
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Monitoring stress and emotional states in dolphins is an important step toward improving animal welfare in managed care. Established physiological approaches, such as measuring cortisol from blood or fecal samples, have provided valuable information for stress assessment. Suction-based devices have also enabled cardiac monitoring, contributing to our understanding of diving physiology and [...]

A new participatory conservation framework built on the rise of native plant gardening

Ingmar R. Staude, Ralf Engel, Rolf Engelmann, et al.

Published: 2025-09-10
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Global biodiversity strategies are ambitious on paper but fall short in practice. It is not strategy we lack, but the capacity to translate these plans into action on the ground. Akin to the community scientists that revolutionised biodiversity monitoring, we posit that community stewards, emerging from the rapidly growing native plant gardening movement, could scale up science-informed plant [...]

"Homo informatio"

Michael John Walker

Published: 2025-09-10
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Did very “small-world” networks enhance the Darwinian fitness of primaeval Homo through exchanges of information that enabled exploration of resources beyond those exploitable at hand? An active inference suggestion is offered about the early evolution of human social behaviour. A phylogenetic split ~7.5 Ma (million years ago) separated paninan ancestors that were unlike today's chimpanzees, and [...]

Social and economic consequences of prestige and dominance in rural Colombian social networks

Daniel Redhead, Arlenys Hurtado Manyoma, Danier Hurtado Manyoma, et al.

Published: 2025-08-22
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social status regulates influence and well-being in most social-animals. In humans, social status can be attained via two distinct routes: prestige (freely-conferred deference, typically tracking the ability of individuals to confer benefits) and dominance (fear-based deference, typically tracking the ability of individuals to inflict costs). While prestige and dominance are well-studied from a [...]

Observation methods in animal behaviour: a simulation study of performance

Alexander Mielke, Camille Testard, Alba Motes-Rodrigo, et al.

Published: 2025-08-22
Subjects: Animal Studies, Biological Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Most behavioural studies rely on systematic samples of behaviour, as observing and recording all behavioural events that occur is rarely feasible. Choosing an observation method involves several key decisions, including which individuals to observe, how to sample their behaviour, and how to distribute sampling effort over time. These decisions influence how closely behavioural estimates reflect [...]

From Shorelines to Social Media: Mixed-Methods Insights into Urban Fishing Practices, Policy Gaps and Culture in the Digital Age

Timothy Haight Frawley, Maryam Krauss, Plengrhambha Snidvongs Kruesopon, et al.

Published: 2025-08-15
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Recreational and subsistence fishing are globally significant forms of marine resource use, contributing to food security, cultural identity, and social well-being across diverse coastal communities. Yet these non-commercial sectors are often overlooked in formal fisheries monitoring and governance. In California’s San Francisco Bay Area, non-commercial fishers represent a wide range of [...]

Five misunderstandings in animal social network analysis

Daniel Redhead, Ben Kawam, Jean-Gabriel Young, et al.

Published: 2025-08-04
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Animal social network analysis has become central to behavioural ecology, offering powerful tools to explore the links between social behaviour and ecological or evolutionary processes. While rooted in the broader field of social network analysis, the methods used in animal studies have diverged from contemporary practices in the broader field. This divergence has led to conflicting guidance on [...]

okaapi: an R package for generating social networks based on trait preferences

Josefine Bohr Brask, Lauren J. N. Brent, Delphine De Moor

Published: 2025-07-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Modelling of simulated networks with generative network models plays a central role for our understanding of the emergence and consequences of network structures. Accessible software that generates simulated networks based on relevant processes can facilitate the use of this important approach in behavioural ecology, and can help drive forward our understanding of animal social structures. Here [...]

Social information about others’ affective states in a human-altered world

Luca G. Hahn, Jordan McDowall, Margaux Vanhussel, et al.

Published: 2025-07-06
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

As a result of human-induced environmental change, animals increasingly face challenges that differ from those encountered throughout their evolutionary history. Whilst this has caused dramatic declines for many species, some can persist by gathering information to reduce uncertainty, thereby minimising risks and exploiting new opportunities. The strategic use of social information can be [...]

Conservation impacts and socio-demographic characteristics mediate perceptions of trophy hunting

Luke C Evans, Victoria L Boult, Thomas Frederick Johnson

Published: 2025-06-21
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences

Trophy hunting is a divisive topic in conservation, with recent events and policy proposals reigniting heated debates over its acceptability. To understand what shapes divergent opinions on trophy hunting, we conducted an opportunistic survey that gauged the degree to which the perceived acceptability of trophy hunting was influenced by a range of contextual factors (e.g. animal welfare, [...]

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