Our research addresses questions about how people think about other people, and the implications that these cognitions have for social behavior. In a lot of work, we draw on an evolutionary perspective to deduce – and then test – hypotheses about these social psychological processes.  In some of our research, we examine additional cultural consequences of these psychological processes.  Here are brief overviews of several recent and/or ongoing lines of research:

 
Fundamental Goals and Social Cognition:

Goals such as avoiding harm, finding suitable mates, and providing parental care for one's offspring are fundamental to human survival and reproduction, and probably have been for a very long time.  It seems likely that these goals – and the emotional/motivational states associated with them – may influence many other psychological processes and phenomena.  We have been working on many projects that investigate the consequences of evolutionarily-important goal states on person perception, attitudes, decision-making, and other aspects of social cognition. 

Psychological Foundations of Culture:

How does culture emerge?  Why do cultures have the particular norms that they do rather than others?  How can we explain the origins of cross-cultural differences?  Using both experimental and archival research methods, we have pursued several different lines of research that address these sorts of questions.  The results suggest that many of the beliefs, behaviors, and other norms that define a culture emerge and persist as unintended consequences of predictable features of individual-level cognition and interpersonal interaction.  And many cross-cultural differences may emerge as consequences of these psychological processes operating within the context of different ecological circumstances.

The Behavioral Immune System:

The behavioral immune system refers to a coordinated set of psychological mechanisms that allows individuals to detect the potential presence of disease-causing things in their immediate environment, and faciliates behavioral avoidance of prevent contact with those things.  We have conducted research investigating effects of these mechanisms for a variety of aspects of social cognition and social behavior (including person perception, intergroup prejudice, and social conformity). Some of this work suggests that the behavioral immune system may contribute to cross-cultural differences in attitudes, values.  Other results suggest that it may even have implications for the functioning of the "real" immune system too.