My first book, Invisible Rivals: how we evolved to compete in a cooperative world, is out now.
In this book, I describe what I'm calling invisible rivalry — or how we make ourselves and others believe that we are acting cooperatively even as we manipulate those around us for our own benefit. Yet in confronting this collective tendency toward self-interest, we can make the fundamental first step in fixing the breakdown of trust in society. Consequently, we will be better able to combat the myriad issues we face today, including widespread inequality, misinformation in a new technological environment, and climate change.
Are we hardwired to fall for autocrats? The Guardian. May 18, 2025.
Why claims about 'resurrecting' dire wolves are the tip of the iceberg. New Scientist. April 17, 2025.
Can making the NHS cleaner slow the spread of disease? The Conversation. February 27, 2025.
Government needs to show that its AI plan can be trusted to deal with serious risks when it comes to health data. The Conversation. February 3, 2025.
The enduring power of an accent. Financial Times. December 26, 2024.
Our trust in society is eroding. We need to fight back. New Scientist. November 20, 2024.
Combatting deepfakes is an evolutionary arms race. New Scientist. March 13, 2024.
Kindness has persisted in a competitive world – cultural evolution can explain why. The Conversation. September 25, 2023.
Real interdisciplinarity would bridge the quantitative-qualitative divide. Times Higher Education. June 18, 2023.
Inner goblins. New Scientist. May 3, 2023.
Blue ticks: what evolutionary theory tells us about the turmoil around social media verification. The Conversation. March 7, 2023.
Psychopaths: why they’ve thrived through evolutionary history – and how that may change. The Conversation. February 13, 2023.
Beware the rise of corporate rituals designed to manipulate employees. New Scientist. July 20, 2022.
Learning to live with covid-19 means covering up coughs and sneezes. New Scientist. March 16, 2022.
Why we shouldn’t worry about COVID spilling back from animals into human populations. The Conversation. March 2, 2022.
Evolution of language can help us sift truth from lies in modern world. New Scientist. January 26, 2022.
How disease has stimulated cultural change. The Conversation. November 15, 2021.
We should isolate when we have flu, not just covid-19. New Scientist. September 15, 2021.
Sustainability and public health (with Carol Brayne). The Darwinian. August 2021.
The fight against coronavirus needs to embrace evolutionary theory. New Scientist. July 14, 2021.
COVID: did a delayed second dose give the delta variant an evolutionary helping hand? The Conversation. June 11, 2021.
Immune response might be more about signalling to others that you need help and less about protecting your body. The Conversation. May 12, 2021.
A pandemic like no other. New Scientist. January 9, 2021.
An evolving crisis. New Scientist. May 20, 2020.
Letter: Our nature’s political side is driving the polarising rhetoric of these times. Financial Times. April 17, 2020.
The challenge of finding genome-based cancer treatments. Scientific American. April 3, 2020.
Uighur Muslims: novel coronavirus could become increasingly virulent in detention camps (with Paul Ewald). The Conversation. February 19, 2020.
Where is the next HPV vaccine? Proto. January 15, 2020.
Welcome to the virosphere. New Scientist. January 8, 2020.
Citation counting is killing academic dissent. Times Higher Education. November 25, 2019.
How do we decide what is right? The ethicist’s view. Times Higher Education. March 28, 2019 (part of feature: The THE-Microsoft survey on AI).
Confused about cancer? New Scientist. February 4, 2019.
Fear over healthcare locks Americans in jobs – and throttles creativity. The Guardian. November 13, 2017.
If culture is too expensive for most, everyone pays a price. Aeon. December 2, 2016.
How statistics are twisted to obscure public understanding. Aeon. July 11, 2016.
The fight is a morality play. Aeon. July 8, 2015.
The myth of memes. Aeon. May 8, 2015.
How and Why We Should Abolish Death (Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston). New Scientist. November 20, 2024.
Then I Am Myself the World (Christof Koch). New Scientist. June 5, 2024.
Selfish Genes to Social Beings (Jonathan Silvertown). Nature. April 8, 2024.
Our Tribal Future (David Samson). New Scientist. November 10, 2023.
Why We Meditate (Daniel Goleman and Tsoknyi Rinpoche). New Scientist. January 18, 2023.
19 Ways of Looking at Consciousness (Patrick House). New Scientist. October 12, 2022.