top of page

LATEST PROJECTS

Master's

Thesis

According to modern evolutionary psychology, humans have evolved adaptive mating-related traits (based on the ideas of parental investment theory (Trivers, 1972) and life history strategy (Figueredo et al., 2006), to name a few) for reproductive success. It has been proposed that performance in mating intelligence (MI), which is comprised of the cognitive processes that underlie successful mating-relevant interactions and outcomes (Geher & Kaufman, 2011), can predict one’s likelihood of attracting a viable mate, thus predicting reproductive success (Geher, Miller, & Murphy, 2008). Geher and Kaufman (2008) devised a scale to measure MI. While it has proved to be a useful tool towards measuring MI, there are many downfalls to self-report measures. This study aims to develop an ability-based measurement of MI.

Are You Smarter than a Personal Ad?:

An Ability-Based Measure of Mating Intelligence

NPNP

New Paltz Neanderthal Project 

New advancements in technology have allowed us to explore our ancestral history. It has been discovered that long ago, inbreeding among Neandertals and homo sapiens occured (Wynn & Coolidge, 2011). With this, DNA within modern-day humans has some overlap with that of neandertals. It has also been verified that some individuals have a higher DNA percentage overlap than do others (Disotell, 2012). This study aims to explore this overlap in DNA among modern-day humans and Neandertals. Through the collaboration with established genomics companies, the New Paltz Evolutionary Psychology Lab seeks to find possible implications of having a higher percentage of Neandertal DNA overlap as opposed to having a lower percent overlap.    
 

IAT

Religion

Study

Religion and Violence

The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding about the relationship between religion and violence. We hypothesize that religion is an evolved characteristic of humans. It evolved as a means of forming strong in-groups, by allowing for costly signals of group membership. Social psychologists have frequently found that strong in-group identificalion leads to increased out-group aggression. Our specific goals are to investigate whether religion, through this out-group mechanism, provides for greater toleration of violence done in its name. Through the use of an implicit associalion task, the investgators will measure participants' reaction times of how long it takes them to categorize items based on labels provided by the investigator using two response locations. Prior research has shown that when participants are asked to categorize two different sets of categories simultaneously, still only using two response locations, participants' reaction times are slowed when categorizing against their biases as opposed to with their biases.

bottom of page