psychology

#143 William von Hippel: The Social Leap, Human Sociality, Mating, Agriculture, and Happiness

Feb 25, 2019

Dr. William von Hippel is Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. He has published more than a hundred articles, chapters, and edited books in social psychology, and his research has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, the BBC, Le Monde, El Mundo, Der Spiegel, and The Australian. He also recently published a book, “The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy” (2018). More»
#141 Moshe Hoffman: Game Theory, Norm Enforcement, and Evolutionary Psychology

Feb 21, 2019

Dr. Moshe Hoffman is a Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab & Lecturer at Harvard's Department of Economics. He applies game theory, models of learning and evolution, and experimental methods, to try to decipher the (often subconscious and subtle) incentives that shape our social behavior, preferences, and ideologies. Dr. Hoffman obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and his B.S. in Economics from the University of Chicago. He also co-designed and teaches "Game Theory and Social Behavior" which lays out a lot of the evidence and models behind this approach. More»
#130 Iris Berent: Linguistics, Skinner and Chomsky, Spoken and Written Language

Jan 25, 2019

Dr. Iris Berent is Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, US. Her research examines the nature of linguistic competence, its origins, and its interaction with reading ability. She’s the author of the book The Phonological Mind. She will also be releasing a new book in the near future, The Blind Storyteller. More»
#129 Igor Grossmann: Culture, Emotion Regulation, and Wisdom

Jan 24, 2019

Dr. Igor Grossmann is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He’s been the recipient of several awards, including the 2015 "Rising Star" Award, by the Association for Psychological Science; the 2015 President's New Researcher Award, by the Canadian Psychological Association; the 2017 Early Career Award, by the Ontario Ministry of Research Innovation and Science; and the 2017 Outstanding Alumni Award, by the International Max Plank Research School on the Life Course (LIFE). Dr. Grossmann is a behavioral scientist exploring the interplay of sociocultural factors for adaptive emotion regulation and wisdom in the face of daily stressors. More»
#128 Randy Thornhill: Parasite-Stress, Sociality, Values, Personality, and Politics

Jan 21, 2019

Dr. Randy Thornhill is an American entomologist and evolutionary biologist. He is a professor of biology at the University of New Mexico, and was president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society from 2011 to 2013. He is known for his evolutionary explanation of rape as well as his work on insect mating systems and the parasite-stress theory. He’s the author of several books, including A Natural History of Rape, and The Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality. More»
#126 Sarah Hill: Life History Theory, Puberty, Immune Function, and Mating Strategies

Jan 17, 2019

Dr. Sarah Hill is Associate Professor of Psychology at Texas Christian University. She studies a range of topics, applying an evolutionary lens, including the interplay between immune function and mating strategies; the impact of inflammation; poverty, food regulation, and weight gain; hormonal contraceptives and mate choice; and other topics under the rubric of life history theory. More»
#125 Patrick Forscher: Implicit Bias, Stereotypes, and the Science Reform Movement

Jan 14, 2019

Dr. Patrick Forscher is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Arkansas. He studies social disparities and what to do about them. He also has a strong interest in research methods. As such, he has used a wide variety of methods to pursue his research interests, including scale construction, meta-analysis, field research, and conventional laboratory studies. More»
#124 Robert Plomin: Blueprint, Genetics, Environment, Clinical Psychology, and Gene Editing

Jan 11, 2019

Dr. Robert Plomin is Professor of Behavioural Genetics at the Social Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Center at King’s College London, and Research Professor at the Medical Research Council (MRC). He’s one of the leading figures in the entire field of Behavioral Genetics. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Dr. Plomin as the 71st most cited psychologist of the 20th century. And he’s also the author of many books, including Behavioral Genetics: A Primer (1989), Separate Lives: Why Siblings Are So Different (1992), Nature And Nurture: An Introduction To Human Behavioral Genetics (2004), Nature and Nurture During Infancy and Early Childhood (2006), G Is for Genes (2013), and, the most recent one, Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are (2018). More»
#123 David Sloan Wilson: Evolution, Contextual Behavioral Science, Religion, and Group Selection

Jan 10, 2019

Dr. David Sloan Wilson is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He applies evolutionary theory to all aspects of humanity in addition to the rest of life, both in his own research and as director of the Evolution Institute, a unique campus-wide evolutionary studies program that recently received NSF funding to expand into a nationwide consortium. His books include Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society; Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives; The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time and Does Altruism Exist? Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others; and a recently edited book, Evolution and Contextual Behavioral Science. More»
#120 Michael Bang Petersen: Evolution, Emotions, Groups, and Politics

Jan 3, 2019

Dr. Michael Bang Petersen is Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University, in Denmark. He also directs The Politics and Evolution Lab (PoNE Lab) there. He investigates how the adaptive challenges of human evolutionary history shape the way modern citizens think about mass politics. More»