Sexist birds and intimidating runners with hills

Does the sex of the bird affect how soon they fly away when approached by humans? What about the sex of the human?

Coming across a steep hill while out jogging can be intimidating. Does being tired affect how runners perceive the size of hills?

In this episode, Lu and Tirth discuss how European birds are sexist towards humans and how just tricking people into believing they have to climb a hill can cause them to exaggerate its steepness.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:48 Ways to improve the podcast
• 7:25 Bird study
• 17:08 Hill study
• 26:44 Let’s read some mail
• 29:23 What did you learn today, outro

Article links:

• Morelli et al., 2025. Sex matters: European urban birds flee approaching women sooner than approaching men. People and Nature. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.70226
• Bhalla et al., 1999. Visual-Motor Recalibration in Geographical Slant Perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-03275-014

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