Current Graduate Students

 Angela Pirlott 

M.A., Social Psychology, Arizona State University

B.A., Psychology and Women's Studies, Marquette University

Research Interests: I am interested in examining broad ecological and cultural factors influencing interpersonal sexual attitudes and behaviors, such as sex ratio differences, resource ecologies, and/or disease ecologies, and their impact on perceptions of power in sexual relationships, condom use, and the trade-offs made in sexual decision making.

If you are an undergraduate interested in working with me, please email me at Angela.Pirlott@asu.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in culture and religion from an evolutionary perspective. 

If you are an undergraduate interested in working with me, please email me at Yexin.Li@asu.edu

Kathy Johnson

M.A., Religious Studies, Arizona State University

B.A., Psychology, Arizona State University; B.S. Accountancy, Arizona State University

Research Interests: I study anthropomorphism- the attribution of humanlike characteristics to non-human entities. I am particularly interested in how anthropomorphic thinking is involved in the construction of personhood in different cultures. So, for example, in what ways do people think of God, angels, deceased ancestors, embryos, pets, animals, birds, or religious objects as actual persons who must be respected and who may have rights and responsibilites? What criteria do people use in determining who or what is a person? Does the attribution of personhood vary with holistic vs analytic thinking, or between independent and interdependent relational styles? I am also interested in using my research to help people with divergent worldviews develop meta-cognitive strategies to improve academic achievement in predominately white, Western, secular university environments. 

If you are an undergraduate interested in working with me, please email me at Kathryn.A.Johnson@asu.edu

Beth Osborne

 B.A., Psychology, Florida State University; B.S., Biology, Florida State University

Research Interests: I'm interested in how behavior and culture are shaped through biological evolution.  I study the change in mate perception based on the genetic relatives of a potential mate.  I also study the behavioral and perceptual effects of temperature, specifically how mate perception, group dynamics, and interpersonal relationships are affected by temperature and climate.

If you are an undergraduate interested in working with me, please email me at Elizabeth.A.Osborne@asu.edu

Andrew White

B.S., Psychology, University of Florida

Research Interests: My goal as a researcher is to apply principles from evolutionary biology and cultural psychology to explore basic social psychological phenomenon. Mainstream social psychology often offers domain general psychological principles. However, my research examines how these general psychological principles may be differentially influenced by situations that were critical over the course of evolution (e.g. finding a mate, self-protection) and by cultural differences (e.g. country of origin, religion, socioeconomic status).  

If you are an undergraduate interested in working with me, please email me at Andrew.E.White@asu.edu