Jeff Snyder – He Would Never Hurt Me: Women’s Preferences for “Tough Guys”

Jeff Snyder: UCLAIn general, women in the U.S. appear to prefer prestigious men to dominant men under most circumstances. However, some women select domineering men as long-term intimate partners – sometimes at a high cost to themselves. Such women are likely sensitive to their self-perceived vulnerability to danger, and hence may select domineering men when […]

Hanah Chapman – Moral Disgust Discussed: Emotional and Cognitive Contributions to Human Morality

Hanah Chapman: Ohio State UniversityBeing lied to, cheated upon, stolen from—these are among life’s most emotional experiences, and even watching them happen to someone else can trigger strong feelings. Recent work has confirmed the important role of emotion in human morality, but less is known about precisely which emotions are involved and how emotion exerts […]

Hillard Kaplan – Tsimane Aging and Human Life History Evolution

Hillard Kaplan: The University of New MexicoThis talk examines what we have learned about the aging process among Tsimane forager- horticulturalists, and the implications of our results for understanding human life history evolution. I review our latest findings on behavior, inter-generational transfers, physical function, immunocompetence and cardiovascular disease. Tsimane men and women remain net producers […]

Noa M. Pinter-Wollman – Individual variation in Collective Behavior

Noa M. Pinter-Wollman: The University of California, San DiegoThe behavior of biological systems emerges from the self-organization of multiple agents that interact with one another and follow simple local rules. However, not all individuals within the system are identical. I study how individual variation in the behavior of worker ants affects the behavior of the […]

Steven J. Heine – Positive Self-Views, East and West

Steven J. Heine: University of British ColumbiaA core psychological motivation for people is to view themselves positively, yet for decades the vast majority of evidence for this motivation came from North American samples. More recent research finds that this motivation varies importantly across cultures, because there are different kinds of positive views that are prioritized […]

Frances Chen – The Neurobiology of Sensitivity to Social Support and Interpersonal Conflict

Frances Chen: University of FreiburgSocial relationships are a source of support and comfort in our lives, as well as a source of stress and conflict. Thus, the ability to regulate responses to both positive and negative emotions and cognitions arising from social interactions can significantly influence both physical and mental health. In my talk, I […]

Rafael Nunez – Making sense of Time: Body, Ecology, and Culture in Human Abstraction

Rafael Nunez: The University of California, San DiegoTime, a fundamental aspect of human experience, is elusive and abstract. We cannot perceive time directly through the senses in the way we perceive color, texture, or heat. In order to make sense of, and talk about, temporal experience we must construe it in a stable and tractable […]

Christina Palmer – Maternal-Fetal Genotype Incompatibility as a Risk Factor for Schizophrenia

Christina Palmer: The University of California, Los AngelesPrenatal/obstetric complications are implicated in schizophrenia susceptibility. Some complications may arise from maternal-fetal genotype incompatibility, a term used to describe maternal-fetal genotype combinations that produce an adverse prenatal environment. As will be described, maternal-fetal genotype incompatibility can occur when maternal and fetal genotypes differ from one another, or […]

Georg Striedter – What’s Special About Human Brains?

Georg Striedter: The University of California, Irvine. Human brains are much larger than one would expect for primates of our body size. They also feature more neurons and a proportionately larger neocortex. Prefrontal cortex, in particular, is significantly larger in humans than in other species. Although these features make the human brain unique, most of […]

Scott A. Reid – Perceived Distance Between Accents, Religious Groups, and Attraction to Ingroup-Accented Speakers, is Calibrated to the Costs of Infection Risk

Scott A. Reid: University of California, Santa BarbaraThere is evidence that humans have adaptations to avoid outgroup members who potentially harbor novel pathogens. However, intergroup contact can produce fitness costs (e.g., violence and disease), or benefits (e.g., trade, mates, and technologies), which suggests that it would be beneficial to possess an adaptation that enables the […]