Human Evolution Laboratory

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

Effects of Voice Pitch on Social Perceptions Vary With Relational Mobility and Homicide Rate - Toe Aung, Alexander K. Hill, Jessica K. Hlay, Catherine Hess, Michael Hess, Janie Johnson, Leslie Doll, Sara M. Carlson, Caroline Magdinec, Isaac... Fundamental frequency ( fo) is the most perceptually salient vocal acoustic parameter, yet little is known about how its perceptual influence varies across soci...

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

FoMO is linked to evolutionary behaviors, study finds 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...

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

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

Proclivity for casual s*x linked to greater indirect aggression via heightened intras*xual competitiveness 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...

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

Study involving Hamilton teens explores dating, s*x and psychopathic traits | inTheHammer Are "bad boys" more attractive? A new study involving Hamilton teens shows that delinquency was associated with higher mating success among males.

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

Biospheric Values Predict Ecological Cooperation in a Commons Dilemma Scenario | Ecopsychology 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....

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

Darwin Versus Wallace: Esthetic Evolution and Preferential Mate Choice 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...

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

Optimistic Environmental Messaging Increases State Optimism and in vivo Pro-environmental Behavior 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...

📢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] !

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

Hostility mediates the relations between self-perceived physical health status and cost-inflicting mate retention. 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...

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

Longitudinal Associations Between Primary and Secondary Psychopathic Traits, Delinquency, and Current Dating Status in Adolescence - Adam C. Davis, Heather Brittain, Steven Arnocky, Tracy Vaillancourt, 2022 Many have examined the desirability and mate competition tactics of adults higher on psychopathy using cross-sectional data, but few have studied the longitudin...