psychology

#763 Mitch Brown: Pathogen Avoidance, Mate Preferences for Facial Features, and Humor

Mar 31, 2023

Dr. Mitch Brown is an instructor and researcher in Psychology at the University of Arkansas. His research uses complementary social and evolutionary perspectives in understanding how fundamental social motives shape social perceptions and interpersonal preferences. This work primarily considers (1) the tradeoffs people invoke to avoid disease and belong to groups, (2) the prioritization of physical features and behaviors in shaping preferences for short-term and long-term mates, and (3) how inferences of men’s formidability inform stereotypes of personality and social functions. From an increasingly applied standpoint, his research considers how evolutionary motives impede fair treatment of individuals under the U.S. Constitution. More»
#757 Quentin Atkinson: Comparing Cultures, Climate Change, and Religion

Mar 17, 2023

Dr. Quentin Atkinson is a Professor in Psychology at the University of Auckland, where he runs the Language, Cognition and Culture Lab, and co-Director of the University of Auckland Behavioural Insights Exchange (UoABIX). He uses lab and field experiments, computer modelling and evolutionary theory to shed light on the evolution of human culture and cognition. This work answers questions including the origins of linguistic diversity, the function of religion, the psychology of climate change, how evolved cognitive biases shape our social behavior and why political systems vary the way they do around the globe. More»
#756 Donald Hoffman: The Case Against Reality, and the Interface Theory of Perception

Mar 16, 2023

Dr. Donald Hoffman is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Hoffman studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology using mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. He is the author of The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes. More»
#754 Jerome Wakefield: What is a Mental Disorder?; Depression, and Anxiety

Mar 10, 2023

Dr. Jerome Wakefield is a Professor at NYU Silver as well as an NYU University Professor with multidisciplinary appointments, particularly affiliate faculty in Philosophy and affiliate faculty in Bioethics. Dr. Wakefield’s scholarly specialty is the conceptual foundations of clinical theory. Much of his recent work has concerned the concept of mental disorder, especially how normal negative responses to a problematic social environment can be distinguished from mental disorder and how DSM diagnostic criteria fail to adequately draw this distinction. He’s the author of several books, including The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder, and All We Have to Fear: Psychiatry’s Transformation of Natural Anxieties into Mental Disorders. More»
#752 Paul Bloom - Psych: The Story of the Human Mind

Mar 6, 2023

Dr. Paul Bloom is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. Dr. Bloom studies how children and adults make sense of the world, with special focus on pleasure, morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He is the author of seven books, including his latest Psych: The Story of the Human Mind. More»
#749 Francesca Righetti: The Psychology of Close Relationships

Feb 27, 2023

Dr. Francesca Righetti is an Associate Professor at the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology at the VU Amsterdam. Dr. Righetti’s research focuses on close relationships. More specifically she studies sacrifice, ambivalence, and how dual processes shape relationship dynamics (e.g., implicit partner evaluations, self-control, automatic processes). Besides obtaining several grants (e.g., the VENI, ORA, and VIDI grants from NWO), she has also won several awards such as the Caryl Rusbult Early Career Award from Relationship Researchers Interest Group (RRIG), the Early Career Award from the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) and the Raising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS). More»
#748 Tereza Capelos: Ressentiment, Populism, Brexit, and the Role of Trust in Politics

Feb 24, 2023

Dr. Tereza Capelos is Associate Professor in Political Psychology at the University of Birmingham, Director of the Institute for Conflict Cooperation and Security, and past President of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). Her research focuses on the affective, cognitive and motivational determinants of political judgments. She is particularly interested in the role of emotions and values on political radicalization and tolerance, the formation and updating of institutional and individual reputations and the role of trust and confidence on political accountability attributions. More»
#747 David Geary - Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences (Pt. 2)

Feb 23, 2023

Dr. David C. Geary is Curators’ Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri. He’s the author of several books, including Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences. More»
#746 Simon Baron-Cohen: Autism, Systemizing, Empathy, and Sex Differences

Feb 20, 2023

Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the university's Autism Research Centre. He has made major contributions to the fields of typical cognitive sex differences, autism prevalence and screening, autism genetics, autism neuroimaging, autism and technical ability, and synesthesia. Dr. Baron-Cohen was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to autistic people. His latest book is The Pattern Seekers: A New Theory of Human Invention. More»
#745 Christopher Ferguson - Catastrophe!; Why Good People Make Bad Situations Worse

Feb 17, 2023

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson is professor of psychology at Stetson University. He is interested in media violence and, in particular, video games. He’s the author of Catastrophe!: How Psychology Explains Why Good People Make Bad Situations Worse. More»