Presentation Types

Posters will be presented during the dedicated Poster Session. Posters can present either research findings or project proposals. Posters should be in A0 vertical (portrait) format: 84.1 cm wide × 118.9 cm high (approx. 33.1 in × 46.8 in).

Oral presentations will be 15 minutes talk including discussion.

Use of images: If you include images that are not your own (e.g., from publications, websites, or other sources), you should clearly mention the copyright holder or original author on the slide or poster.

Symposia will be scheduled at suitable times in the programme. Symposia provide the opportunity for a focused session on a key area of research interest in human ethology. Format for symposia is flexible and proposals to be considered by the Program Committee should give details of the proposed topic and format, including Chairperson, proposed speakers (who should have confirmed they are willing to participate), and a proposed schedule (e.g. time allocated to individual talks, whether there will be discussions, panel sessions etc.). As an example, your symposium might have one chair with a 10 min introduction, then four speakers who each have a 20 min slot, and an additional 20 mins scheduled for a panel discussion. Symposia should normally last between one and two hours. Note that for symposia proposals, the proposed Chairperson should submit a proposal for the symposium (i.e. an overview of the entire symposium). Individual speakers who will take part in the symposium should also submit their own abstracts individually.

Guidelines for Abstract Submissions
Abstract proposals can be submitted from the link below. You will need to have ready the following information:

• Contact details of the presenting author
• Full ordered author list and author affiliations
• Abstract (250 words)

The Abstract Submission IS CLOSED

After Abstract Submission
Abstracts will be reviewed by the Programme Committee and the presenting author will be contacted as soon as a decision is made. The Programme Committee reserves the right not to include submitted abstracts in the congress program.

 

Student First Authors
First author (i.e. presenting) students whose contribution has been accepted as oral or poster presentation will be exempted from the registration fee and will be allocated to free (shared) student accommodation and banquet ticket.

Plenary Speakers

Jean-Michel Geneste,  University of Bordeaux:

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Commented film projection)

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

Martin Brüne, Ruhr University, Bochum:

Evolution of human social minds

Dietrich Stout, Emory University:

The Evolution of Human Tool Use and Technology

Angela Friederici, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig:

Language as a human specific cognitive function

Alison S. Brooks, George Washington University

Sibylle Wolf, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen:

Materialising Identity in the Upper Palaeolithic 

Polly Wiessner, Arizona State University:

From Stories to Society: The Making of Imagined Communities

Nicholas Conard, University of Tübingen

Programme committee 

Jaroslava Varella Valentova (Chair), University of São Paulo, Brazil
Marian Vanhaeren, University of Bordeaux, France
Wulf Schiefenhövel, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany
Maryanne Fisher, Saint Mary’s University, Canada
Jan Havlíček, Charles University, Czech Republic
Iris Holzleitner, University of the West of England, UK
Craig Roberts, University of Stirling, UK

 

Please, find the final detailed program HERE

The full book of abstracts can be downloaded HERE (10Mb)

Sunday, 21^st of June

Maison Bordes             
13:00-18:00   Registration, Welcome bag, drink & snack

13:00-15:00 Board of Officers Meeting
15:00-17:00 Board of Trustees Meeting

Museum Lecture Room

18:00-20:00    Setting the scene (film projection & introduction)

Film 1: The last passage by Pascal Magontier (30 mins)

Introduced by Jean-Michel Geneste

Film 2: Eipo, Star Mountains, West-Papua, Indonesia: Rebuilding the sacred men’s house (30 min)

Introduced by Wulf Schiefenhövel

Museum Rooftop
20:00-22:00   Get together (buffet dinner)

 

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Monday, 22^nd of June

Maison Bordes

8:00-9:00        Registration

Museum Lecture Room (1h45min)

9:00-9:15         Welcome & Announcements (15 min)

9:15-10:45      Keynote 1 (1 h 30 min)

What makes us human? Insights from Prehistory & Biopsychology

Jean-Jacques Hublin & Martin Brüne

Museum Rooftop

10:45-11:15    Coffee & Tea (30 min)

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 15 min)

Adaptation/Mismatch

11:15-11:30  Ton Groothuis, Wulf Schiefenhövel, Sara Schaafsma, Nele Zickert, Reint Geuze:
Exploring past and present Darwinian selection for human handedness

11:30-11:45    Ian Stephen, Kevin Brooks:
Body size and shape misperception: A Tinbergian approach

11:45-12:00    Hana Hubová, Zuzana Kaňková, Jan Toman, Daniela Dlouhá, Šárka Kaňková:
Disgust Sensitivity in Adolescence: Intersexual and Age-Related Differences

12:00-12:15  Elahe Tavakoli-Berg, Jeanne Bovet, Mats Lekander, Mats Olsson, Joanna Vieira, Julie Lasselin, Arnaud Tognetti:
Sick faces trigger social avoidance in humans

12:15-12:30 Lenka Martinec Nováková:
Subjective Sensory Processing versus Acuity as Predictors of Picky Eating in Czech Adolescents

Maison Bordes  
           
12:30-14:00    Lunch (1 h 30 min)

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 30 min)

Reproduction

14:00-14:15    Katharina da Silva, Bruno Amaral, Marco Varella, Jaroslava Varella Valentova:
Dark side of mate choice: Homogamy Drives Attraction to Dark Triad, but Desirability of Antisocial Traits and Criminal Behavior is Not Enhanced by Fame, Wealth, or Looks

14:15-14:30  Maximilian von Andrian-Werburg, Emilia Gögl, Frank Schwab:
Dark desires? Which traits predict female use of Dark Romance, and how does the genre influence its audience?

14:30-14:45    Prapti Gohil, Gabriel Šaffa, Pavel Duda:
Cultural constraints on reproduction: ecology, social organization, and post-partum sex taboo

14:45-15:00    Hidenori Komatsu, Nobuyuki Tanaka, Benjamin J. A. Dickins, Catherine Salmon, Elisabeth Oberzaucher, T. Joel Wade, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, Maryanne L. Fisher, Ryoko Takikawa, Thomas E. Dickins:
Perceived familial support as an overlooked driving force for fertility: a kin selection perspective

15:00-15:15    Ilmari Määttänen, Mehmet Mehmetoglu, Siiri Lehto:
Social learning of human mating preferences

15:15-15:30    Yitzchak Ben Mocha:
Advancing human evolution research with the Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD)

Museum Rooftop       

15:30-16:00   Coffee & Tea (30 min)

Museum Lecture Room (2 h)

16:00-16:30    John Richer:
“Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards” Søren Kierkegaard, 1843. Why studying ourselves scientifically is difficult and why ethology is best placed to succeed

16:30-18:00    Keynote 2

Fires & caves: centers of human creativity

Pauline (Polly) Wiessner
From Stories to Society: The Making of Imagined Communities

Nicholas Conard

Paleo-human ethology and hominin evolution since the Middle Pleistocene

Dinner at own expense, advanced reservation recommended

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Tuesday, 23^rd of June

Museum Lecture Room (1 h)

9:00-10:00 Funerary rites & grief: human hallmarks

Bruno Maureille:
Mortuary behaviors and funerary practices in the Paleolithic: Current perspectives and research challenges

Wulf Schiefenhövel:
Emotions driving funerary rites: examples from New Guinea

Marian Vanhaeren:
Reconstructing emotions in prehistoric funerary contexts Prelude to the Special Exhibit “Gestes d’Éternité”

Nathalie Fourment, Brad Gravina:
Prelude to the Special Exhibit “Gestes d’Éternité”

National Prehistory Museum (1 h)

Visit of the Special Exhibit “Gestes d’Éternité” with Nathalie Fourment, Brad Gravina and Maïwenn
Courcelle
10:00 Group #1
10:15 Group #2
Coffee & Tea will be available on the Rooftop between 10:00 and 11:00

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 30 min)

11:00-12:30      Keynote 3

On culture & cognition

Dietrich (Dietz) Stout
The Evolution of Human Tool Use and Technology

Angela Friederici
Language as a uniquely human cognitive trait

Maison Bordes       

12:30-14:00    Lunch (1 h 30 min)

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 30 min)

14:00-15:30    Glimpses from the past

14:00-14:15    Michael Brill, Maximilian von Andrian-Werburg, Frank Schwab:
Still Painting the Same Stories: Human Universals from Prehistoric Caves to Modern Film

14:15-14:30    Nataliia Mykhailova:
The Mariupol Phenomenon: Personal Ornaments and Social Identity

14:30-14:45    Irene Delval, Juan Manuel García-Ruiz, Tomás de la Rosa, Guillermo Bustelo: Crystal Allure:
Why Apes and Humans Are Attracted to Crystals

14:45-15:00    Marco Varella:
The Nocturnal Evolution of Human Musicality: Solving the Adaptationist Puzzle

15:00-15:15    Edward Morisson:
The origin of beauty

15:15-15:30    Cheng Liu:
Sealed in stones: Toward a computational ethology of stone toolmaking

Visit to Lascaux IV

15:30-16:00    Walk to bus stop on the Place de la Mairie

16:00-16:35    Bus Les Eyzies to Lascaux IV

16:35-16:50    Walk bus stop to Lascaux IV

16:50-19:10    Explore Lascaux IV

16:50   Group #1 (max 40 persons)

17:00    Group #2 (max 40 persons)

17:10    Group #3 (max 40 persons)

19:10-19:30    Walk to Bus Stop

19:30-20:00 Bus Lascaux IV to Les Eyzies

Maison Bordes

20:00-22:00    BBQ Dinner

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Wednesday, 24^th of June

Pôle d’interprétation de préhistoire Lecture Room (PIP) (1 h)

Les enfants dégoûtés: A symposium on development of disgust

9:00-9:15    Daniela Dlouhá, Hana Hubová, Jana Benešová, Kateřina Roberts, S. Craig Roberts, Šárka Kaňková:
Disgust in preschool children: a cross-cultural experimental study

9:15-9:30    Jan Havlíček, Daniela Dlouhá, Marie Štěpánková, Lucie Jelínková, Dagmar Schwambergová:
The development of olfactory-mediated disgust in preschool children

9:30-9:45    Markéta Janovcová, Šárka Peterková, Helena Vaňková, Kristýna Sedláčková, Daniel Frynta,
Eva Landová:
Negative emotions evoked by animals: Fear changes, but disgust remains the same

9:45-10:00 Symposium Panel discussion

Pôle d’interprétation de préhistoire Lecture Room (PIP) (3 h)

10:00-11:00       Poster presentations 1-20

11:00-11:30       Coffee & Tea

11:30-12:48       Poster presentations 21-46

Pôle d’interprétation de préhistoire Lecture Room (3 h 12 min)

13:00-14:00    Walking lunch

13:00-16:00    Poster discussion session

Museum Lecture Room (2 h)

16:00-16:30    Walk to National Prehistory Museum

16:30-18:00    Keynote 4

Art, Jewels & Beauty

Alison Brooks, John Yellen
Symbolic Behavior and Body Ornamentation: Beads, Pigments and ‘Art’ in Evolutionary Perspective

Sibylle Wolf
Materialising Identity in the Upper Palaeolithic

Dinner at own expense, advanced reservation recommended

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Thursday, 25^th of June

Excursion to Rouffignac Cave (4 h)   

8:45-9:30        Bus Les Eyzies to Rouffignac Cave

9:30-11:30 Visit Rouffignac Cave

9:30      Group #1 (n=30)

9:45      Group #2 (n=30)

10:00    Group #3 (n=30)

10:15    Group #4 (n=30)

11:30-12:00 Bus Rouffignac Cave to Les Eyzies

Maison Bordes

12:00-14:00   Lunch (2 h)

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 30 min)

Olfaction

14:00-14:15    Lucie Jelínková, Dagmar Schwambergová, Žaneta Pátková, Anna Frank, Jan Havlíček:
Male body odour attractiveness, but not the arousal state of the male body odour, influences sexual arousal in women

14:15-14:30    Jitka Třebická Fialová, Natálie Folbergerová, Daniel Mazánek, Vojtěch Nesvadba, Jan Havlíček, Vít Třebický:
Olfactory cues to winning and losing in a virtual reality game

14:30-14:45    Jeffrey Frederick, Jan Havlíček:
Systematic review of body odor changes across the menstrual cycle

14:45-15:00    S. Craig Roberts:
Breastfeeding, bonding, and olfaction: unlocking the potential of mother infant odour exchange

Language and Sound

15:00-15:15    Theresa Matzinger, Shiri Lev-Ari:
The effect of aesthetic appeal on the cultural evolution of language

15:15-15:30    Daniela Lenti Boero, Laura Habegger:
The emotional reactions to nature sounds agree with human evolutionary history

Museum Rooftop        

15:30-16:00   Coffee & Tea (30 min)

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 15 min)

16:00-16:15    Katelyn Lowe, Carol Weisfeld, Lee Eshelman:
An Ethological Study of Nonverbal Behaviors in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

16:15-16:30    Carol Weisfeld, Katelyn Lowe:
What am I seeing? Novel displacement behaviors in patients with PTSD

16:30-16:45    Nathan Pipitone, Emmanuelle Legerme:
Inclusive fitness…and puppy love? Investigating how phylogenetic relatedness, inclusive fitness, and sex of rater influence emotional distress levels when considering hypothetical assault scenarios

16:45-17:00    Agnieszka Zydorczyk:
Amateur Ethologists in the Digital Age: How incels misinterpret evolution to rationalise misogyny

17:00-17:15    Serge Bahuchet:
Tools, hands, and gesture: the necessary contribution of human ethology to understand material culture

17:15-17:30 Walk to Abri Pataud

Abri Pataud (or, if it rains Maison Bordes) (4 h 30 min)

17:30-22:00    
Visit Abri Pataud with Roland Nespoulet
17:30    Group #1 (max 40)
17:50    Group #2 (max 40)
18:10    Group #3 (max 40)

Pataud museum freely accessible
Flint knapping
Buffet dinner

 

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Friday, 26^th of June

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 30 min)

Methods

9:00-9:15    Petr Tureček, Peter Kutsos, Petr Chlup, Pavlína Hillerová:
Randomness in decision-making models and its role in integration of information from multiple sources

9:15-9:30    Adam Smith, Hidenori Komatsu, Nobuyuki Tanaka, Hiromi Kubota, Osamu Kimura, Maryanne L. Fisher, Renan Koike, Takahiro Ueno, Hiroto Takaguchi, Kimiya Murakami:
Familial Nudging as an Energy Conservation Method in the Workplace: Insights from AI-Driven Analysis

9:30-9:45    Gabriel Stoiciu:
Interviewing Enheduanna. Exploring Artificial Intelligence’s impersonation ability as methodological resource in archeological and anthropological research

Twins

9:45-10:00  Nancy Segal:
Evolutionary Perspectives on Twinning: The Puzzle of Functional Significance

Attractiveness

10:00-10:15    Vít Třebický, Agáta Kolingerová, David Stella, Natálie Folbergerová, Vojtěch Nesvadba, Jitka Holubová, František Zahálka, Jan Havlíček, JItka Třebická Fialová:
Association between physical fitness and attractiveness in women

Child ethology

10:15-10:30    Natalia Siekiera:
Play–Work Repertoires and Peer Relations in Yurakare Indigenous Children

Museum Rooftop

10:30-11:00 Coffee & Tea (30 min)

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 30 min)

Emotions

11:00-11:15    Catherine-Noémie Alexandrina Guran:
Dogs are not for Eating: Attributing Affective Abilities to Animals

11:15-11:30    Pavlína Hillerová:
Keeping Solidarity Alive: Episodic Engagement and Visibility in Crisis Fundraising

11:30-11:45  Amelia Waliszewska:
Jokes, Mischief, and Mayhem: Dark Triad Traits Meet Humor Styles?

11:45-12:00   Ana Maria Fernandez:
The evolved social mind in digital perspective: Adaptation, mismatch, and emerging social ecologies

12:00-12:15    Colin Hendrie, Alasdair Pickles:
Avian alarm calls increase heart rate in anxious individuals

12:15-12:30    Daniel Frynta, Markéta Janovcová, Iveta Štolhoferová, Petra Frýdlová, Eva Landová:
Pictorial stimuli can reliably substitute for live animals in studies assessing perceived beauty and elicited emotional responses

Maison Bordes

12:03-14:00   Lunch (1 h 30 min)

Museum Lecture Room (1 h 30 min)

Emotions (continued)

14:00-14:15    Bridget Waller, Jamie Whitehouse, Jerome Micheletta, Eithne Kavanagh:
Universal facial expressions tell stories, not active states

14:15-14:30    Jitka Lindová, Linda Glajchová, Barbora Šipošová:
When we push back or let go: emotions in conflict

14:30-14:45    Aitana García Arasco, Lorine Grangy, Laurène Gaillard, Agata Groyecka-Bernard, Piotr Sorokowski, David Reby, Katarzyna Pisanski:
Human fear and aggressive vocalisations vary across diverse cultures: Evidence from Hadza, Darkhad and French populations

14:45-15:00    Carole Tafforin, Coraline Tamponnet, Muriel Didier, Agnès Bégué, Nancy Segal:
Behavior of women in space mission scenarios: ethological viewpoint and cross-view

15:00-15:15    Sojung Baek, Nurul Alam, Aasima Mowni, Mary Shenk:
Empathy as a Mechanism of Social Capital Formation in a Patrilocal Society: Evidence from Women of Matlab, Bangladesh

15:15-15:30    Marc Mehu:
Emotional experience in the face of threats and opportunities: Connections between emotion theories and the Fundamental Motives Framework

Museum Rooftop   
    
15:30-16:00   Coffee & Tea (30 min)

Lecture Room Museum (2 h)

16:00-18:00    General Assembly Meeting

Rooftop Museum

20:00-24:00    Conference Dinner

 

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Saturday, 27^th of June

8:30-12:00    Kayak on the Vézère river, Les Eyzies

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

Earlybird rates (until 10 May 2026)

ISHE Members                                                                 USD200

Non-members                                                                  USD320

Students*/retirees ISHE Members                               USD100

Students*/retirees Non-Members                                USD150

 

Late registration rates (after 10 May 2026)

ISHE Members                                                                 USD260

Non-members                                                                  USD390

Students*/retirees ISHE Members                               USD150

Students*/retirees Non-Members                                USD210

Banquet ticket                                                                  USD 60

Refreshment allowance

Student First Authors                                                     USD 50

*Students who are presenting as First Author (SFA), and whose presentation has been accepted by the Programme Committee, are eligible for free registration and accommodation

Type	Cancellation Received	Refund Amount
Registration	On or before May 10, 2026	Full refund
Registration	May 11 – June 14, 2026	50% of fees paid
Registration	After June 14, 2026	No refund
Banquet Ticket	On or before June 14, 2026	Full refund
Banquet Ticket	After June 14, 2026	No refund

Les Eyzies, a picturesque village nestled against rock cliffs at the shore of the Vézère, is the cradle of archaeology and prehistory. Research carried out there presented proof that early humans lived in the area, who did not only leave traces of their lithic technology and mobile art, but created the world-famous paintings and petroglyphs deep inside the nearby caves bearing witness of their daring minds and artistic prowess.

The conference will be held in the museum, right under one of the abris where early humans lived and died. Visits to some of the caves, including Lascaux IV, and a kayak trip will be organised.

Key locations:
Maison Bordes
Musee Nationale de Prehistoire

Other locations:
Pôle d’interprétation de préhistoire
Abri Pataud
Lascaux IV Cave
Rouffignac Cave
Les Eyzies bus stop for excursions

How to get there

From Bordeaux airport (Bordeaux Mérignac Aéroport, BOD)

              -Bus: navette 30’Direct (every 30 minutes to Bordeaux central train station) + Train to Les Eyzies via Périgueux (1 change)

-Drive (185 km via toll road, 164 km via national roads)

From Bordeaux central train station (Bordeaux-Saint-Jean)

              -Train with 1 change in Périgueux (Bordeaux-Saint-Jean – Périgueux – change – Périgueux – Les Eyzies)

From Périgueux central train station

              -Train (c. 30 min)

From Bergerac airport (EGC)

              -Bus (Line 333) to Bergerac central train station (Bergerac Gare sncf) + Train to Les Eyzies via Le Buisson-de-Cadouin (1 change)

              -Drive (55 km)

From Bergerac central train station

              -Train with 1 change in Le Buisson-de-Cadouin

              (Bergerac – Le Buisson – change – Le Buisson – Les Eyzies)

From Brive – Souillac airport (BVE)

              -Drive (55 km)

From Paris Charles de Gaule airport (CDG)

              -TGV INOUI to Bordeaux + Train with change in Périgueux

              -Drive (570 km)

From Paris Orly airport

              -Bus (Flixbus) to Limoges + Train with change in Périgueux

              -Drive (520 km)

From Paris Gare d’Austerlitz train station

              -Train with 2 changes (Limoges-Bénédictins and Périgueux)

Hotel des Roches 
Clos des Rochers
Hotel Cro-Magnon 
Hotel Le Passeur 
Chambres d’Hôtes chez Maria 
Maison Bordes

Sunday, 21^st of June
Museum Rooftop
20:00-22:00   Get together (buffet dinner)

Tuesday, 23^rd of June

Visit to Lascaux IV

15:45-16:30 Bus Les Eyzies to Lascaux IV

16:30-19:30 Explore Lascaux IV

16:50   Group #1 (max 40 persons)

17:00    Group #2 (max 40 persons)

17:10    Group #3 (max 40 persons)

19:30-20:00 Bus Lascaux IV to Les Eyzies

Maison Bordes

20:00-22:00 BBQ Dinner

Thursday, 25^th of June

Excursion to Rouffignac Cave (4 h)   

8:45-9:30        Bus Les Eyzies to Rouffignac Cave

9:30-11:30 Visit Rouffignac Cave

9:40      Group #1 (n=30)

10:00    Group #2 (n=30)

10:20    Group #3 (n=30)

11:30-12:00 Bus Rouffignac Cave to Les Eyzies

18:00-22:00    
Visit Abri Pataud with Roland Nespoulet
Flint knapping
Buffet dinner

Friday, 26^th of June

Rooftop Museum

20:00-24:00    Conference Dinner

Saturday, 27^th of June

9:00-12:00    Kayak on the Vézère river, Les Eyzies