#245 Daniel Conroy-Beam: The Evolutionary Psychology of Mating
Dr. Daniel Conroy-Beam is Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He uses an evolutionary perspective to understand how mate preferences are linked to actual mating outcomes. Specifically, he is interested in how mate preferences are integrated with one another computationally in order to make mating decisions. His work combines agent-based modeling of mate choice evolution with studies of real couples to compare and explore candidate algorithms for how people select their mating strategies, evaluate potential mates, and regulate their relationships.
In this episode, we focus on human mating. We talk about some of the most well-established mate preferences. We then get into how people choose mates based on these same preferences, and we focus mostly on Euclidian algorithms, as explored by Dr. Conroy-Beam in his work, and all of the phenomena that we are able to study and understand through them. We specifically address things like relationship satisfaction, mate switching, and mate retention tactics. We also talk about studying sex differences using multivariate analyses, opposite-sex friendships, and mysteries in human mating that we have yet to answer. We end up by talking about some limitations in traditional evolutionary psychology, and how things are expected to progress in the near future.
Time Links:
What we know about human mate preferences
Understanding how people really choose mates
Euclidian algorithms
People calibrate their mate preferences
Mate value discrepancies and relationship satisfaction
Mate switching
Mate retention tactics
Studying sex differences with multivariate analyses
Opposite-sex friendships
Mysteries of human mating
More progress in evolutionary psychology and the behavioral sciences
Follow Dr. Conroy-Beam’s work!
Follow Dr. Conroy-Beam’s work:
Faculty page: http://bit.ly/2Z5cWvP
Personal website: http://bit.ly/2NjYCZq
Articles on Researchgate: http://bit.ly/2PlP5nt
Relevant papers:
Mate Preferences: http://bit.ly/33Oyv2E
Do Mate Preferences Influence Actual Mating Decisions?: http://bit.ly/2Z4nGuE
Euclidean distances discriminatively predict short-term and long-term attraction to potential mates: http://bit.ly/30p5msE
Euclidean Mate Value and Power of Choice on the Mating Market: http://bit.ly/2HgrOwA
Friends with Benefits: The Evolved Psychology of Same- and Opposite-Sex Friendship: http://bit.ly/2zeZ9mY
How Sexually Dimorphic Are Human Mate Preferences?: http://bit.ly/2MpCjBT
The mate switching hypothesis: http://bit.ly/2ZklH4y
What predicts romantic relationship satisfaction and mate retention intensity: mate preference fulfillment or mate value discrepancies?: http://bit.ly/2Z9UuSf