My research program takes complementary perspectives of social and evolutionary theory toward motivated social cognition and perception. Humans are influenced by competing motivational systems that facilitate survival and reproduction. However, obtaining the benefits to satisfy one system is often at the expense of another. This need for satisfaction requires individuals to identify whether another person is capable of satisfying a salient goal. My work considers shifts in interpersonal preferences based on these goals and how they shape perceptions of physical features and behavioral repertoires in the service of identifying friends, enemies, and mates.
Belonging versus Disease Avoidance: Is being part of the in-crowd worth the risk of possibly getting sick? We investigate the competition between people's motivations to avoid disease and their need to belong. Our studies center around how feelings of inclusion, exclusion, and crowding shape social preferences, namely based around visible cues to disease and sociable personalities. We have also studied how disease threat shapes interests in socializing, team-building, and different types of foods.
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Mate Preferences: Mate selection is complicated. Our research focuses on the trade-offs people make when selecting mates. We consider prospective mates' value in long-term mating contexts (e.g., relationships) or short-term mating contexts (e.g., one-night stands). We consider physical features diagnostic of good genes and their role in shaping short-term mating judgments. For long-term mating, this work focuses on behavioral repertoires connoting morality and an interest in parental investment.
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Inferences of Formidability: Our lab considers how people perceive men based on physical strength through various features (e.g., facial structures, muscles). From these perceptions, we are interested in understanding how these features inform judgments of these men as fathers and allies. Other work considers how these features shape stereotypes of men's personalities, social intentions, and political ideology based on heuristic associations between strength and behaviors.
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Functional Approaches to Humor: With growing interest in the evolutionary underpinnings of humor and laughter, our lab investigates the motivational impetus behind when people tell jokes and the nature of their humor. We investigate the contexts in which people prefer different humor styles. This work has recently started to determine how people infer preferred humor styles based on physical features.
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Other Work
In addition to my primary areas of research described above, I have also been involved in many collaborations that show a versatility in research topics. This has included how evolutionary motives shape legal decision-making, both in relation to disease avoidance and identifying sexual rivals. With students, I have considered how people make expectations about relationships through various interpersonal signals and started addressing the cross-race effect with a fundamental motives framework. I have also been extensively involved in federal research projects through the Office of Research Integrity for the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services. This work considers why scientists engage in questionable research practices and how we can improve the replicability of published findings. If you think I have a couple of mismatched papers on my vitae, it's because I'm a really collaborative guy with a diverse array of colleagues! This has included collaborators in cognitive and clinical psychology and philosophy. |
N.B., Descriptions of current research are intentionally vague to prevent bias.