Abstract There has been widespread discussion of biases in the sciences. The extent of most forms of bias has scarcely been confronted with rigorous data. In the present article, we evaluated the potential for geographic, taxonomic, and citation biases in publications between temperate and tropical systems for nine broad topics in ecology and evolutionary biology. Across 1,800 papers sampled from 60,000 peer-reviewed, empirical studies, we found consistent patterns of bias in the form of increased numbers of studies in temperate systems. Tropical studies were nearly absent from some topics. Furthermore, there were strong taxonomic biases across topics and geographic regions, as well as evidence for citation biases in many topics. Our results indicate a strong geographic imbalance in publishing patterns and among different taxonomic groups across a wide range of topics. The task ahead is to address what these biases mean and how they influence the state of our knowledge in ecology and evolution.

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Adverse conditions in early life can have negative consequences for adult health and survival in humans and other animals. What variables mediate the relationship between early adversity and adult survival? Adult social environments represent one candidate: Early life adversity is linked to social adversity in adulthood, and social adversity in adulthood predicts survival outcomes. However, no study has prospectively linked early life adversity, adult social behavior, and adult survival to measure the extent to which adult social behavior mediates this relationship. We do so in a wild baboon population in Amboseli, Kenya. We find weak mediation and largely independent effects of early adversity and adult sociality on survival. Furthermore, strong social bonds and high social status in adulthood can buffer some negative effects of early adversity. These results support the idea that affiliative social behavior is subject to natural selection through its positive relationship with survival, and they highlight possible targets for intervention to improve human health and well-being.

Does social isolation in adulthood predict survival because socially isolated individuals are already unhealthy due to adversity earlier in life ("health selection")? Or do adult social environments directly cause poor health and increased mortality risk ("social causation")? These alternative hypotheses are difficult to disentangle in humans because prospective data on survival and the environment for both early life and adulthood are rarely available. Using data from the baboon population of Amboseli, Kenya, a model for human behavior and aging, we show that early adversity and adult social isolation contribute independently to reduced adult survival, in support of both health selection and social causation. Further, strong social bonds and high social status can buffer some negative effects of early adversity on survival. These results support a growing change in perspective, away from "either-or" hypotheses and towards a multi-causal perspective that points to multiple opportunities to mitigate the effects of social adversity.