Statistical Rethinking ─ A Bayesian Course With Examples in R and Stan

This book provides a more elementary introduction to Bayesian analysis than the Gelman book and is more suitable for graduate students in disciplines other than statistics. It uses a lot of examples and discussion to provide a bridge between introductory textbooks and the more mathematical books. Aimed at natural/social scientists and Ph.D. students, it is designed to teach computation and application, not mathematics. Data examples come from anthropology, ecology and social sciences.

Richard McElreath is the director of the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He is also a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. His work lies at the intersection of evolutionary and cultural anthropology, specifically how the evolution of fancy social learning in humans accounts for the unusual nature of human adaptation and extraordinary scale and variety of human societies.