Human Evolution Laboratory

02/20/2024

Very excited to have been a part of this excellent cross-cultural research on homicide rates and perception of voice pitch, led by colleagues at Penn State:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976231222288?fbclid=IwAR19fsvTTYcT6aJTWkspSKLLLm_spGpACWYUt-VvvEJJHxKguah5A5hYgPg

Fundamental frequency ( fo) is the most perceptually salient vocal acoustic parameter, yet little is known about how its perceptual influence varies across soci...

02/17/2024

Recent research from the human evolution lab on the evolutionary underpinnings of fear of missing out (FOMO)

A new study published in Current Research in Behavioral Sciences looked at FoMO (“Fear of Missing Out”) from an evolutionary perspective, finding the phenomenon was positively linked to competitive behaviors and short-term mating interests, with women higher in FoMO experiencing reduced social s...

06/02/2023

Congrats to students Megan, Abeni, and Carli on a great job presenting at this year's HBES conference!

08/30/2022

New research from the human evolution lab, led by our post doc Adam Davis

New research sheds light on the link between short-term mating strategies and indirect aggression. The findings indicate that intras*xual rivalry, in which people feel a greater need to compete with members of the same s*x, is one mechanism that explains why young adults who have a more unrestricted...

07/24/2022

https://www.insauga.com/study-involving-hamilton-teens-explores-dating-s*x-and-psychopathic-traits/

Are "bad boys" more attractive? A new study involving Hamilton teens shows that delinquency was associated with higher mating success among males.

07/08/2022

Some great research on environmental cooperation by our post-doc, Dr. Davis

In ecological commons dilemma research, environmental values tend to be treated as a monolith. However, environmental values vary and they do not equally predict proenvironmental behavior. In this study, we investigated the impact of three kinds of proenvironmental values (egoistic, altruistic, and....

05/25/2022

Our post-doc, Dr. Adam Davis' paper in Frontiers describing issues and recommendations for improving research on s*xual selection

Dominant theorizing and research surrounding the operation of inters*xual selection in evolutionary psychology tends to be guided by an adaptationist framework and aligned with models of s*xual selection involving direct benefits (e.g., parental care) and indirect “good gene” and condition-depen...

04/29/2022

Our new paper in Frontiers examining whether priming optimism about climate change influences subsequent pro-environmental engagement:

Despite recent empirical interest, the links between optimism and pessimism with pro-environmental behavior (PEB) remain equivocal. This research is characterized by a reliance on cross-sectional data, a focus on trait-level at the neglect of state-level optimism–pessimism, and assessments of retr...

04/04/2022

📢New Special Topics Course Offering!
🆕PSYC 3906: The Evolutionary Roots of Human Aggression: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences

Interested in taking a spring course this year? The Psychology Department is offering a new special topics course for the Spring 2022 semester!

If you have any questions, feel free to DM us or email [email protected] !

02/06/2022

A new paper from our lab examining links between poor health, hostility, and men's partner violence

Physical health has been argued to provide a range of reproductive advantages such as being preferentially chosen as a mate, having more disease-resistant children, and possessing a higher capacity to invest in mates, offspring, allies, and kin. Few researchers have, however, examined how self-perce...

02/03/2022

Research led by our new post-doc, Adam davis, examining links between psychopathy and mating behavior

Many have examined the desirability and mate competition tactics of adults higher on psychopathy using cross-sectional data, but few have studied the longitudin...