{"title":"One species, one nature, many niches.","authors":"Bjorn Merker","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105913","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105913","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The analysis of subsistence cultures, centered on hunting foragers, presented in the target article returns them to the fold of our common humanity. With that, they can make their full contribution to our understanding of the species to which we belong. I comment on some of the issues this involves.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e438"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Slavery as a process of maintaining extreme inequality.","authors":"Gewei Cao","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105834","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105834","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stibbard-Hawkes and von Rueden called for further cross-cultural and quantitative research to understand the mechanisms under their egalitarianism framework. Studying the socio-ecological factors that favour egalitarian processes or inequality and slavery maps the same spectrum of individual autonomy from two ends. Including slavery in the analysis' scope is consistent with their paradigm and complements their approach.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e425"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What holds the egalitarian processes together? The case for norms.","authors":"Angarika Deb","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105949","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This commentary argues that the process-based account of egalitarianism overlooks a central component: norms. Norms are socially enforced and morally grounded behavioral standards that enable and regulate egalitarian processes. I show that many processes discussed by the authors rely on underlying norms, and argue that incorporating norms as a distinct category clarifies individual motivation and the relational flexibility of egalitarian systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e427"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Egalitarianism and women.","authors":"Raymond Hames","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105810","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105810","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Their conceptual approach is the signal strength of this important paper. Future researchers on egalitarianism, whether archival or original, would be well advised to use their approach as a research guide. One major problem with the study of egalitarianism is that it only applies to the status of men and not women. This gap is the focus on my commentary.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e430"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When egalitarianism legitimizes inequality: Implications for gender disparities in organizations.","authors":"Cinzia Calluso, Valentina Iacopino","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105871","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105871","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stibbard-Hawkes and von Rueden's process-based account of egalitarianism provides a powerful framework for understanding how egalitarian systems coexist with inequality. Extending this perspective to modern organizations, we argue that such processes may inadvertently legitimize gender disparities. Equality initiatives that rely on moral signaling alone are insufficient; effective interventions must counterbalance the self-interested dynamics through which status and opportunity are allocated.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e424"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Processes versus outcomes in explaining (in)equality.","authors":"Eric Alden Smith","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105809","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105809","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>I agree with many elements of the target article. My concerns focus on criticisms of outcome-based approaches to (in)equality and insufficient attention to factors constraining processes favoring egalitarianism. Understanding outcomes is of great importance. We often want to know <i>how unequal</i> societies are and why egalitarian-favoring processes vary in effectiveness across both small-scale societies and as the social scale increases.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e445"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The metabolic turn: Implications between the model and the system.","authors":"Mads J Dengsø","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26106189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26106189","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>I offer further support for a <i>metabolic turn</i> in cognitive science and raise two questions for metabolic considerations in modeling: I first invite the authors to consider broader tensions between computational and metabolic models; I then discuss possible connections between the relevance attributed to metabolic considerations for modeling and ontological background commitments about cognitive systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e457"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Having the landscape in the background: What can metabolic constraints explain about memory?","authors":"Jonathan Najenson","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26106360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26106360","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Haueis and Colaço claim that metabolic considerations function as explanatory constraints. I argue the explanatory contribution of metabolic constraints for synaptic models of memory is not well delineated. While metabolic constraints determine which synaptic architectures are biologically possible, they do not structure the outcome of synaptic consolidation. Metabolic constraints are explanatory since they account for the background conditions of memory formation.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e471"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Extending metabolic considerations to the default mode network.","authors":"Yi-Sheng Wong","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26106074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26106074","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Haueis and Colaço distinguish evaluative and generative roles for metabolic considerations in cognitive modeling. I extend this framework to the default mode network, arguing that this network's elevated aerobic glycolysis constitutes a metabolic constraint on spontaneous thought. This constraint shapes the richness of spontaneous thought across varying task demands and predicts load-dependent phenomenological shifts through inter-network resource competition.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e483"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Duncan N E Stibbard-Hawkes, Christopher R von Rueden
{"title":"Beyond egalitarian societies: Egalitarianism as a human universal.","authors":"Duncan N E Stibbard-Hawkes, Christopher R von Rueden","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26106931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26106931","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the Target Article, we argued that \"egalitarian societies\" are real, but that outcome-oriented, society-level taxonomies have caused confusion and disagreement. After showing that inequalities exist in even the most egalitarian societies, we called for greater research emphasis on processes underlying egalitarianism under a range of ecological/economic conditions. Thirty commentaries discuss, extend or, in several cases, query elements of our thesis. In this response, we address each commentary in turn, focussing on four unifying themes: (1) gendered inequalities; (2) outcome vs process; (3) cultural norms and enculturation; and (4) the psychology of egalitarianism. We finish by reiterating our call to shift focus beyond outcome-oriented society-level taxonomies. In synthesising insights from a range of commentaries, we show that the motives and processes underlying egalitarianism in smaller-scale societies have far-reaching relevance to the study of political psychology and political organisation in all human societies, including contemporary nation-states.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e452"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}