Plants, Infants, and the Evolution of Social Learning with Annie Wertz
Podcast:Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast) Published On: Tue Aug 26 2025 Description: Plants are mini chemical weapon factories! Learning and evolution are not opposed! This week, Annie Wertz (UCSB) joins us to describe her groundbreaking world on the evolutionary psychology of what babies know about plants, and how infants selectively use social information to guide their interactions with them. A lovely example of how adopting an evolutionary perspective inspires new areas of research, and a good example of how evolution builds learning mechanisms. More about Annie Wertz: https://psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/annie-e-wertz https://lilac.psych.ucsb.edu/