Alex Bentley                       

New book:

R. Alexander Bentley and Michael O'Brien (2017) The Acceleration of Cultural Change: From Ancestors to Algorithms. (M.I.T. Press)

 "The authors take a long view of cultural change in which the more recent developments -- social networks, memes, big data -- come into perspective as extreme cases of the creative and disruptive potentials of our tool-oriented species." - Inside Higher Ed, November 2017.

"This book offers an intelligent model for predictions on culture, and connects historical dots to tell us something about future events. But, as the book also explains, that future remains impossible to predict. Yet, knowledge of the evolution of culture and technology does offer a great insight on how culture changes and survives over time. And the authors succeed in presenting this in this playful book."   - Jochem Kootstra, LSE Review of Books

Recent & highlighted publications:

Ruck, D.J., R.A. Bentley and D.J. Lawson (2018). Religious change preceded economic change in the 20th century. Science Advances 4(7): eaar8680.

Bentley, R.A., A. Willis, B. Pradier, A.A. Kyaw, T.T. Win, A.D. Brandon and T.O. Pryce (2018). Social differences in Neolithic/Bronze Age Myanmar. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 21: 32-37.

Bentley, R.A., C.N. Ross and M. J. O’Brien (2018). Obesity, metabolism, and aging: A multiscalar approach. Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science 155: 25-42.

Ruck, D.,  R.A. Bentley, A. Acerbi, P. Garnett & D.J. Hruschka (2017). Role of neutral evolution in word turnover during centuries of English word popularity. Advances in Complex Systems 20: 1750012.

Degryse, P. and R.A. Bentley (2017). Archaeological geochemistry. In (W.M. White, ed.) Encyclopedia of Geochemistry, in press. Heidelberg: Springer.

Bentley, R.A., W.A. Brock, C.C.S. Caiado and M.J. O’Brien (2016). Evaluating reproductive decisions as discrete choices under social influence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 371: 20150154.

Caiado, C.C.S., W.A Brock, R.A. Bentley and M.J O'Brien (2016). Fitness landscapes among many options under social influence. Journal of Theoretical Biology 405: 5–16.

Bentley, R.A. & M.J. O’Brien (2015). Collective behaviour, uncertainty and environmental change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 373(2055).

Bentley, R.A., M.J. O'Brien & W.A. Brock (2014). Mapping collective behavior in the big-data era. Behavioral & Brain Sciences 37: 63-119.

Bentley, R.A., A. Acerbi, V. Lampos, P. Ormerod (2014). Books average previous decade of economic misery.  PLoS ONE 9(1): e83147. 

Acerbi, A., V. Lampos, P. Garnett & R.A. Bentley (2013) The expression of emotions in 20th century books. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59030.

Bentley, R.A., P. Bickle, L. Fibiger, G.M. Nowell, C.W. Dale, R.E.M. Hedges, J. Hamilton, J. Wahl, M. Francken, G. Grupe, E. Lenneis, M. Teschler-Nicola, R.-M. Arbogast, D. Hofmann & A. Whittle (2012). Community differentiation and kinship among Europe's first farmers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109: 9326-9330.

Books:

Michael J. O'Brien, R. Alexander Bentley and William A. Brock (2019). The Importance of Small Decisions. (In production with M.I.T. Press)

R. Alexander Bentley and Michael J. O'Brien (2017) The Acceleration of Cultural Change: From Ancestors to Algorithms. (M.I.T. Press)



 "An intelligent model for predictions on culture" - LSE Review of Books

Alex Bentley, Mark Earls and Michael O’Brien (2011). I’ll Have What She’s Having: Mapping Social Behavior. MIT Press.

“An extremely intelligent book, short and well expressed” — Kevin Duncan, Greatest Hits Blog. 

“Many nice details” - Steven Poole, The Guardian 

 Media/events: 

• "Religion and prosperity." Science Update, August 2, 2018.
• "Non-religious countries experience greater economic growth." The Independent, 18 July 2018.
• "Why so many more names for girls?" Time, 10 May 2016.
• A history of sugar - the food nobody needs, but everybody craves. The Conversation, 30 Oct 2015.
• "On the Tipping Point," panel discussion, ICAEW, London, June 2015.
• Culture Conference 2015, University of Birmingham, May 2015.
• Social Mood Conference, Atlanta, April 2015.
• BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival - "Watching us watching them watching each other" Nov 2014.
• The controversial case for buying ‘fake’ social media followers - The Guardian, Sept 2014.
• "How Sugar Changed the World." IAS interdisciplinary workshop, Bristol, June 2014.
• "Study of books finds economic link" - New York Times, Jan 2014.
• NPR's "All Things Considered", April 2013.
• As a guest on "The Forum", BBC World Service, January 2013.
•  "The buzzwords of the crowd" - New York Times, Dec 2012.
• "Occupy the Neolithic" - Science Now May 2012.
• “Inherited wealth may date back to dawn of agriculture” - The Guardian, May 2012.