Selected publications
PDFs are provided for personal, non-commercial use only. Consult the relevant journal for copyright information.
2019 and in press

Radford AN, Schindler S & Fawcett TW in press. Between-group attack and defence in an ecological setting: insights from non-human animals. Behav. Brain Sci.

Fawcett TW, Ewans J, Lawrence A & Radford AN in press. Attractiveness is positively related to World Cup performance in male, but not female, biathletes. Behav. Ecol. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz097
PRESS RELEASE | The Times | Daily Mail | Independent | Telegraph
2018
Cenni C & Fawcett TW 2018. The co-evolution of juvenile play-fighting and adult competition. Ethology 124: 290-301.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/285/1871/20172411.full.pdf
Higginson AD, Fawcett TW, Houston AI & McNamara JM 2018. Trust your gut: using physiological states as a source of information is almost as effective as optimal Bayesian learning. Proc. R. Soc. B. 285: 20172411.
PRESS RELEASE | Newsweek | Daily Mail | Daily Express | Huffington Post | RTE | Medical News Today | Metro | Sunday Post | Focus
Republica | Big Think | Europa Press
2017
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/18/11/118003/pdf
Rosenström T, Fawcett TW, Higginson AD, Metsä-Simola N, Hagen EH, Houston AI & Martikainen P 2017. Adaptive and non-adaptive models of depression: a comparison using register data on antidepressant medication during divorce. PLoS ONE 12: e0179495.
2016
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/18/11/118003/pdf
Higginson AD & Fawcett TW 2016. Equation-dense papers receive fewer citations—in physics as well as biology. New J. Phys. 18: 118003. APPENDIX: Full statistical analysis
PRESS RELEASE | BackReaction (physics blog) | BBC Science Focus | United Press International | Inside Higher Ed | Europa Press | Nature World News | Zee News
English S, Fawcett TW, Higginson AD, Trimmer PC & Uller T 2016. Adaptive use of information during growth can explain long-term effects of early-life experiences. Am. Nat. 187: 620-632.
2015
Fawcett TW & Frankenhuis WE 2015. Adaptive explanations for sensitive windows in development. Front. Zool. 12: S3.
Trimmer PC, Higginson AD, Fawcett TW, McNamara JM & Houston AI 2015. Adaptive learning can result in a failure to profit from good conditions: implications for understanding depression. Evol. Med. Public Health 2015: 123-135.
WINNER OF THE 2015 GEORGE C. WILLIAMS PRIZE | Committee's statement | Commentary by Bergstrom & Meacham
Mallpress DEW, Fawcett TW, Houston AI & McNamara JM 2015. Risk attitudes in a changing environment: an evolutionary model of the fourfold pattern of risk preferences. Psych. Rev. 122: 364-375.
PRESS RELEASE | The Australian | Herald Sun | Courier Mail | Irish Independent | Belfast Telegraph | Times of Malta | Island Crisis
Fawcett TW, Marshall JAR & Higginson AD 2015. The evolution of mechanisms underlying behaviour. Curr. Zool. 61: 221-225.
Higginson AD, Fawcett TW & Houston AI 2015. Evolution of a flexible rule for foraging that copes with environmental variation. Curr. Zool. 61: 303-312.
2014
Radford AR & Fawcett TW 2014. Conflict between groups promotes later defense of a critical resource in a cooperatively breeding bird. Curr. Biol. 24: 2935-2939.
PRESS RELEASE | Front cover
Houston AI, Fawcett TW, Mallpress DEW & McNamara JM 2014. Clarifying the relationship between prospect theory and risk-sensitive foraging theory. Evol. Hum. Behav. 35: 502-507.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661313002970/pdfft?md5=8e98135c5f82fcdf538a613f87586a78&pid=1-s2.0-S1364661313002970-main.pdf
Fawcett TW, Fallenstein B, Higginson AD, Houston AI, Mallpress DEW, Trimmer PC & McNamara JM 2014. The evolution of decision rules in complex environments. Trends Cogn. Sci. 18: 153-161.
van den Berg P, Fawcett TW, Buunk AP & Weissing FJ 2014. Conflict over resources generates conflict over mate choice. Evol. Hum. Behav. 35: 157-159.
2013
Fawcett TW & Mowles SL 2013. Assessments of fighting ability need not be cognitively complex. Anim. Behav. 86: e1-e7.
van den Berg P, Fawcett TW, Buunk AP & Weissing FJ 2013. The evolution of parent-offspring conflict over mate choice. Evol. Hum. Behav. 34: 405-411.
PRESS RELEASE | New York Times | Time | Times of India | Fox News | NBC News | Discovery Channel | MSN | The Daily Telegraph |
The Daily Mail | Die Welt | Trouw | La Nación | Huffington Post | Business Standard | Men's Health | Panorama | Courier Mail | ABC.es |
First Post | PsychCentral | Dagblad van het Noorden | Counsel & Heal | Medical Xpress | Motherboard.tv | Scientias | Metro (NL) |
What to Expect | Medical Daily | Quo | Softpedia | ScienceFlash | Bristol Post
McNamara JM, Fawcett TW & Houston AI 2013. An adaptive response to uncertainty generates positive and negative contrast effects. Science 340: 1084-1086.
Reprint | PRESS RELEASE | The Conversation | Medical Daily | Motherboard.tv | iTech Post | Scientias | Knack | TVN Meteo | Science World Report
Fawcett TW, Hamblin S & Giraldeau L-A 2013. We can study how mechanisms evolve without knowing the rules of chess or the workings of the brain. Behav. Ecol. 24: 14-15.
Fawcett TW, Hamblin S & Giraldeau L-A 2013. Exposing the behavioral gambit: the evolution of learning and decision rules. Behav. Ecol. 24: 2-11.
2012
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cognitive-search

 McNamara JM & Fawcett TW 2012. Optimal strategies and heuristics for ecological search problems. In: Todd PM, Hills TT & Robbins TW (eds), Cognitive Search: Evolution, Algorithms, and the Brain, Strüngmann Forum Reports, vol. 9, pp. 301-315. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mallpress DEW, Fawcett TW, McNamara JM & Houston AI 2012. Comparing pleasure and pain: the fundamental mathematical equivalence of reward gain and shock reduction under variable interval schedules. J. Exp. Anal. Behav. 98: 355-367.
Higginson AD, Fawcett TW, Trimmer PC, McNamara JM & Houston AI 2012. Generalized optimal risk allocation: foraging and antipredator behavior in a fluctuating environment. Am. Nat. 180: 589-603.
PRESS RELEASE
Fawcett TW & Higginson AD 2012. Communicating theory effectively requires more explanation, not fewer equations. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109: E3058-E3059.
Fawcett TW & Higginson AD 2012. Heavy use of equations impedes communication among biologists. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109: 11735-11739. 
PRESS RELEASE | PNAS | Nature | ABC News | Science | Scientific American | Times Higher Education | Le Monde | Der Spiegel |
International Business Times  | Corriere della Sera | La Repubblica | NRC Handelsblad | La Razón | To Vima | RIA Novosti
van Dijk RE, Székely T, Komdeur J, Pogány Á, Fawcett TW & Weissing FJ 2012. Individual variation and the resolution of conflict over parental care in penduline tits. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 279: 1927-1936.
PRESS RELEASE | RTV Noord | nu.nl
Houston AI, Trimmer PC, Fawcett TW, Higginson AD, Marshall JAR & McNamara JM 2012. Is optimism optimal? Functional causes of apparent behavioural biases. Behav. Processes 89: 172-178.
Fawcett TW, McNamara JM & Houston AI 2012. When is it adaptive to be patient? A general framework for evaluating delayed rewards. Behav. Processes 89: 128-136.
van der Meij L, Almela M, Buunk AP, Fawcett TW & Salvador A 2012. Men with elevated testosterone levels show more affiliative behaviours during interactions with women. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 279: 202-208. 
2011
Fawcett TW, Kuijper B, Weissing FJ & Pen I 2011. Sex-ratio control erodes sexual selection, revealing evolutionary feedback from adaptive plasticity. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108: 15925-15930.
PRESS RELEASE
Fawcett TW, Boogert NJ & Lefebvre L 2011. Female assessment: cheap tricks or costly calculations? Behav. Ecol. 22: 462-463.
Boogert NJ, Fawcett TW & Lefebvre L 2011. Mate choice for cognitive traits: a review of the evidence in non-human vertebrates. Behav. Ecol. 22: 447-459.
2010
Carere C, Caramaschi D & Fawcett TW 2010. Covariation between personalities and individual differences in coping with stress: converging evidence and hypotheses. Curr. Zool. 56: 728-740.
Fawcett TW, van den Berg P, Weissing FJ, Park JH & Buunk AP 2010. Intergenerational conflict over grandparental investment. Behav. Brain Sci. 33: 23-24.
Riebel K, Holveck MJ, Verhulst S & Fawcett TW 2010. Are high-quality males always attractive? State-dependent mate preferences in birds and humans. Commun. Integr. Biol. 3: 271-273.
Fawcett TW & Johnstone RA 2010. Learning your own strength: winner and loser effects should change with age and experience. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 277: 1427-1434.
2005-2009
Pollet TV, Fawcett TW, Buunk AP & Nettle D 2009. Sex-ratio biasing towards daughters among lower-ranking co-wives in Rwanda. Biol. Lett. 5: 765-768.
Science | The Economist | The Daily Telegraph | The Daily Mail
Fawcett TW & Bleay C 2009. Previous experiences shape adaptive mate preferences. Behav. Ecol. 20: 68-78.
Fawcett TW, Kuijper B, Pen I & Weissing FJ 2007. Should attractive males have more sons? Behav. Ecol. 18: 71-80. 
Brown GR & Fawcett TW 2005. Sexual selection: copycat mating in birds. Curr. Biol. 15: R626-R628.
2000-2004
Fawcett TW & Johnstone RA 2003. Optimal assessment of multiple cues. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 270: 1637-1643.
Fawcett TW & Johnstone RA 2003. Mate choice in the face of costly competition. Behav. Ecol. 14: 771-779.
Fawcett TW, Skinner AMJ & Goldsmith AR 2002. A test of imitative learning in starlings using a two-action method with an enhanced ghost control. Anim. Behav. 64: 547-556.
Tuyttens FAM, Long B, Fawcett T, Skinner A, Brown JA, Cheeseman CL, Roddam AW & Macdonald DW 2001. Estimating group size and population density of Eurasian badgers Meles meles by quantifying latrine use. J. Appl. Ecol. 38: 1114-1121.