{"title":"Egalitarian mechanisms without egalitarian societies.","authors":"Zachary H Garfield","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105858","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The authors' process-based framework, while analytically compelling, undermines the case for retaining society-level classifications. If egalitarian mechanisms are modular and domain-specific, they operate within nominally hierarchical societies as readily as egalitarian ones. Within-society structure is likely the more useful unit of analysis for understanding how leveling dynamics operate. The authors' definition remains underspecified. Abandoning the society-level label sharpens the framework.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e429"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103642","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":"Advantageous inequality aversion as a motivational component in egalitarian processes.","authors":"Ruida Zhu, Chunliang Feng, Chao Liu","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105998","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Egalitarian processes may be driven by multiple coexisting motivations, rather than solely by self-interest and disadvantageous inequality aversion. Drawing on behavioral, computational, and neural evidence, we highlight the important role of advantageous inequality aversion and propose that incorporating it would enhance the framework's theoretical completeness, explanatory power, and scope.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e434"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103698","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}
Louise Toutee, Eli Stark-Elster, Patricio Cruz Y Celis Peniche
{"title":"Outcomes remain crucial for identifying egalitarian systems.","authors":"Louise Toutee, Eli Stark-Elster, Patricio Cruz Y Celis Peniche","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105986","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105986","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It is premature to redefine egalitarianism based on processes rather than outcomes. Various ethnographic examples - like big man cycles, potlatches, and <i>panem et circenses</i> - contain egalitarian processes described by the authors while still generating, legitimizing, and maintaining distinctly unequal outcomes. We therefore argue that outcomes remain a necessary corrective to process-based definitions.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e448"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103729","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 does modeling neural function in its bodily and environmental context buy you?","authors":"Matthieu M de Wit","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26106347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26106347","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>I agree with Haueis and Colaço that integrating metabolic considerations into cognitive modeling is important, given evolution by natural selection. However, I question their exclusive focus on neurocentric models, arguing that ecological models of neural function in embodied, situated contexts should be added to the space of possible models and that extraneural metabolic factors are important to consider as well.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e455"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103778","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 is not uniform: Integrating intersectionality into process-based accounts of human political organisation.","authors":"Elina Meliou, Stratos Ramoglou","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105883","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105883","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We argue that favourable socio-ecological circumstances do not translate uniformly into opportunities for all individuals. Drawing on intersectionality theory, we show that intersectional positions shape individuals' differential ability to engage in the processes identified by the target article. Thus, while socio-ecological conditions create the possibility of egalitarianism, intersectionality shapes how those possibilities may be actualised.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e437"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103673","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":"Bridging metabolic and computational accounts of efficient information processing.","authors":"Stephan Pohl","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26106220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26106220","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although abstract computational models in neuroscience omit biochemical detail, metabolic considerations still apply through abstract measures of efficient information processing. Against Haueis and Colaço's claim that such measures are too generic to discriminate among competing models, I argue that coding efficiency and related measures are commonly applied to evaluate and generate specific cognitive models.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e474"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103689","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":"Archaeology supports proposed redefinition of egalitarianism.","authors":"Timothy A Kohler","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105780","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105780","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Influenced by reports from eastern North America, early Enlightenment thinkers portrayed hunter-gatherers as largely egalitarian. Subsequent observations, anthropological research, and archaeological evidence since the 1970s documented notable inequalities of power, wealth, and rank in some hunter-gatherer societies. Recent global archaeological analyses link increasing inequality to population growth, fuelling increases in group size, growing constraints on land and resources, and thus on individual autonomy.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e436"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103701","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":"Giving metabolism its due.","authors":"Philipp Haueis, David Colaço","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26107298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26107298","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The commentators point out elaborations and challenges to incorporating metabolic considerations into cognitive modeling. We agree with many of them and highlight that these issues can only be addressed when we actively try to include metabolism while evaluating and generating models. The main message of our response is thus that metabolic considerations are epistemically valuable, regardless of the particular modeling approach, conceptualization, or specific ontological commitments regarding cognition. Yet, the commentator's contributions also reveal that metabolism alone is never the decisive factor in cognitive modeling, and that its value for particular projects needs to be demonstrated in the modeling process, rather than assumed from the outset.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e486"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103707","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":"Metabolic constraints on neural fatigue: Evidence from passive induction paradigms.","authors":"Alexandre Zénon, Oleg Solopchuk","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26106086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26106086","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Haueis and Colaço argue that metabolic considerations should constrain and generate cognitive models. Research in cognitive fatigue provides a test case. Passive fatigue induction reveals specific representational degradation that points to local rather than global metabolic mechanisms, pruning potential models. We argue that local aerobic glycolysis offers a coherent, testable generative account of these findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e484"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103623","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":"Harnessing the potential of egalitarian processes requires a psychology of inequality.","authors":"Alexander Schakowski, Simon Ciranka","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X26105895","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X26105895","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The target article demonstrates that inequality exists even in traditional subsistence societies often labeled \"egalitarian.\" It suggests that relative equality is maintained by egalitarian processes that channel self-interested motives, rather than by evolved preferences for equality. We argue that harnessing the potential of egalitarian processes to reduce existing inequalities requires a better understanding of the psychological effects of inequality.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"49 ","pages":"e442"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149103629","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}