The Centre for Behaviour and Evolution at Newcastle University has a new master's degree in Animal Behaviour. This is a 12-month course starting every September, which provides a thorough research training in evolutionary behavioural science. It contains a 24-week major research project, which students will complete working with a member of CBE staff. There are opportunities for projects on several different species, including humans, and using many different techniques. For more information, see our website or contact me directly.
I am a behavioural scientist interested in applying ideas from ecology and evolution to human behaviour. I have worked on such topics as cooperation, reproductive decisions, parenting and families, personality, and health. My research uses theoretical modelling, as well as behavioural data from several countries, especially the UK. I am currently working on socioeconomic inequalities in contemporary Britain - for a brief overview of my approach to this topic, see here.
For a complete list of publications, see my CV
2010
- Nettle, D. (2010). Flexibility in reproductive timing in humans: Integrating ultimate and proximate explanations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B in press PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2010). Undestanding of evolution may be improved by thinking about people. Evolutionary Psychology 8: 205-28. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2010). Dying young and living fast: Variation in life history across English neighbourhoods. Behavioral Ecology 21: 387-95. PDF.
- Nettle, D., D.A. Coall & T.E. Dickins (2010). Birthweight and paternal involvement predict early reproduction in British women: Evidence from the National Child Development Study American Journal of Human Biology 22: 172-9. PDF. Supporting Information
- Watts, G. & D. Nettle (2010). The role of anxiety in vaginismus: A case-control study. Journal of Sexual Medicine 7: 143-8. PDF.
2009
- Nettle, D. (2009). Ecological influences on human behavioural diversity: A review of recent findings. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24: 618-24. PDF .
- Nettle, D. (2009). Social class through the evolutionary lens. The Psychologist 22: 934-7. PDF.
- Pollet, T.V., T.W.Fawcett, A.P. Buunk & D. Nettle (2009). Sex-ratio biasing towards daughters among lower-ranking cowives in Rwanda. Biology Letters 5: 765-8. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2009). Beyond nature versus culture: Cultural variation as an evolved characteristic. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute15: 223-40. PDF With commentaries by W.G. Runciman, R.I.M. Dunbar and Robert Layton, and my response.
- Pollet, T.V., M. Nelissen and Nettle, D. (2009). Lineage differences in grandparental investment: Evidence from a large British cohort. Journal of Biosocial Science 41: 355-79. PDF
- Pollet, T.V. and Nettle, D. (2009). Market forces affect patterns of polygyny in Uganda Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106: 2114-7 PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2009). An evolutionary model of low mood states. Journal of Theoretical Biology257: 100-3. PDF.
- Adams, J. and D. Nettle (2009). Time perspective, personality and smoking, body mass, and physical activity: An empirical study British Journal of Health Psychology 14: 83-105. PDF.
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2008
- Nettle, D. and T.V. Pollet (2008). Natural selection on male wealth in humans American Naturalist 172: 658-66. PDF. Appendix: Supplementary data tables
- Nettle, D. (2008). Why do some dads get more involved than others? Evidence from a large British cohort. Evolution and Human Behavior 29: 416-23. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2008). Darwinian explanations and socio-cultural processes: A synthesis. Paper presented to the seminar ‘Are there limits to the Darwinian worldview?’ at the University Centre St. Ignatius, Antwerp. Electronic version.
- Nettle, D. and B. Liddle (2008). Agreeableness is related to social-cognitive, but not social-perceptual, theory of mind. European Journal of Personality 22: 323-35.PDF.
- Pollet, T.V. and Nettle, D. (2008). Taller women do better in a stressed environment: Height and reproductive success in rural Guatemalan women. American Journal of Human Biology 20: 264-9. PDF.
- Pollet, T.V. and D. Nettle (2008). Driving a hard bargain: Sex ratio and male marriage success in a historical U.S. population.Biology Letters 4:31-3 PDF.
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2007
- Nettle D., Grace J.B., Choisy M., Cornell H.V., Guegan J-F and Hochberg, M. (2007). Cultural Diversity, economic development and societal instability. PLoS ONE 2: e929. PDF
- Pollet, T.V, Nettle, D. and Nelissen, M. (2007). Maternal grandmothers do go the extra mile: factoring distance and lineage into differential contact with grandchildren. Evolutionary Psychology 5: 832-43. PDF.
- Pollet, T.V. and Nettle, D. (2007) Birth order and face-to-face contact with a sibling: Firstborns have more contact than laterborns. Personality and Individual Differences 43: 1796-1806. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2007). A module for metaphor? The site of imagination in the architecture of the mind. Proceedings of the British Academy 147: 259-74. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2007). Language and genes: A new perspective on the origins of human cultural diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 104: 10755-6. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2007). Individual differences. In R.I.M. Dunbar and L. Barrett (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, pp. 479-90. Oxford: Oxford University Press.PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2007). Empathizing and systemizing: What are they, and what do they contribute to our understanding of psychological sex differences? British Journal of Psychology 98: 237-55 PDF.
- Farrelly, D. and D. Nettle (2007). Marriage affects competitive performance in male tennis players. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 5: 141-8. PDF.
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2006
- Pollet, T.V., D. Nettle and M. Nelissen (2006). Contact frequencies between grandparents and grandchildren in a modern society: Estimates of the impact of paternity certainty. Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology 4: 203-13. PDF.
- Liddle, B and D. Nettle (2006). Higher-order theory of mind and social competence in school-age children. Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology4: 231-46. PDF
- Nettle, D. (2006). Schizotypy and mental health amongst poets, visual artists and mathematicans. Journal of Research in Personality 40: 876-90 PDF
- Nettle, D. (2006). The evolution of personality variation in humans and other animals. American Psychologist 61: 622-31. PDF
- Bateson, M., D. Nettle and G. Roberts, (2006). Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting.Biology Letters3:412-4 PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2006). Language: Costs and benefits of a specialised system for social information transmission. In J. Wells (ed.). Social Information Transmission and Human Biology. London: Taylor & Francis. PDF
- Nettle, D. (2006). Psychological profiles of professional actors. Personality and Individual Differences 40: 375-83. PDF.
- Nettle, D. and Clegg, H. (2006). Schizotypy, creativity and mating success in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B 273: 611-5. PDF
- Haselton, M.G. and Nettle, D. (2006). The Paranoid Optimist: An integrative evolutionary model of cognitive biases.
Personality and Social Psychology Review 10: 47-66 PDF
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2005
- Nettle, D. (2005). An evolutionary perspective on the extraversion continuum. Evolution and Human Behavior 26: 363-73 PDF.
- Joinson, C. and D. Nettle (2005). Season of birth variation in sensation seeking in an adult population. Personality and Individual Differences 38: 859-70. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2005). The mating game and the wheel of fire: Explaining the origins of tragedy and comedy. Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology 3: 39-56. PDF.
- Roberts, K.H., Munafo, M.R., Rodriguez, D., Drury, M., Murphy, M.F.G, Neale, R. and Nettle D. (2005). Longitudinal analysis of the effect of prenatal nicotine exposure on subsequent smoking behaviour of offspring. Nicotine and Tobacco Research 7: 1-8. PDF.
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2004
- Nettle, D. (2004). Evolutionary origins of depression: A review and reformulation. Journal of Affective Disorders 81:91-102. PDF.
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2003
- Nettle, D. (2003). Intelligence and class mobility in the British population. British Journal of Psychology 94: 551-61.PDF.
- Stiller, J., D. Nettle, and R.I.M. Dunbar (2003). The small world of Shakespeare’s plays. Human Nature 14: 397-408. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (2003). Hand laterality and cognitive ability: Specifying the relationship. Brain and Cognition 52: 390-8.PDF.
- Nettle, D. and L. Harriss (2003). Genetic and linguistic affiliations amongst human populations in Africa and Eurasia. Human Biology 75: 331-44.PDF.
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2002
- Nettle, D. (2002) Height and reproductive success in a cohort of British men. Human Nature 13: 473-491.
- Nettle, D. (2002). Women’s height, reproductive success and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in modern humans.Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 269: 1919-23. PDF.
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2001 and earlier
- Nettle, D. (2000). Linguistic fragmentation and the wealth of nations: The Fishman-Pool hypothesis re-examined. Economic Development and Cultural Change 48: 335-348.
- Nettle, D. (1999). Linguistic diversity of the Americas can be reconciled with a recent colonization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 96: 3325-9. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (1999). Using Social Impact Theory to simulate language change. Lingua 108: 95-117.PDF.
- Nettle, D. (1999). Is the rate of linguistic change constant? Lingua 108: 119-36. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (1998). Explaining global patterns of language diversity. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17:354-74. PDF.
- Nettle, D. (1997). On the status of methodological individualism: A commentary. Current Anthropology 38: 283-286.PDF.
- Nettle, D. and R.I.M. Dunbar (1997). Social markers and the evolution of reciprocal exchange. Current Anthropology 38:93-9.PDF.
- Nettle, D. (1996). Language diversity in West Africa: An ecological approach. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 15:403-438.PDF.
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- Nettle, D. (2009). Evolution and Genetics for Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This is a textbook on evolutionary theory aimed at students or researchers in the behavioural sciences. US Amazon. UK Amazon.
- Nettle, D. (2007). Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are. Oxford: Oxford University Press.US Amazon. UK Amazon.
- Nettle, D. (2005). Happiness: The Science behind your Smile. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
US Amazon.
UK Amazon.
- Nettle, D. (2001). Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity and Human Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. US Amazon. UK Amazon.
- Nettle, D and Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages. New York: Oxford University Press.US Amazon. UK Amazon.
- Nettle, D. (1999). Linguistic Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
US Amazon. UK Amazon.
- Nettle, D. (1998). The Fyem Language of Northern Nigeria. Munich: Lincom Europa. Publisher's website.
My email address is danieldotnettle at ncl.ac.uk
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