Evolution & Society

Students in our Ph.D. Program in Evolution & Society (E&S) study the evolutionary origins of human nature and human societies, using an interdisciplinary perspective that integrates evolutionary biology, evolutionary anthropology, and evolutionary psychology. We are also guided by research on evolutionary genetics, behavior genetics, evolutionary game theory, life history theory, animal behavior, individual differences (e.g. personality traits, intelligence, neurodiversity, mental disorders), and other relevant theoretical and empirical research. Students and faculty examine how such insights from evolutionary theory can be applied towards understanding and addressing pressing societal-level problems, such as global catastrophic risks (e.g. from nuclear weapons, bioweapons, and artificial intelligence), decreased fertility and demographic collapse, worse mental health among young adults, political polarization, and threats to academic freedom. Thus, individuals in the E & S area leverage the principles of natural, sexual, and social selection to examine and generate solutions for threats to the existence, cooperation, health, and well-being of humanity.

E&S faculty and graduate students examine a wide range of basic and applied research topics, such as social and sexual selection, mate choice, human sexuality, polyamory, women’s intrasexual competition and cooperation, friendships, pain perception, stress responses, consumer behavior and marketing, moral and political psychology, virtue signaling, biases in social and moral evaluations, psychoactive drugs, Effective Altruism, and AI safety. Given the emphasis on addressing societal issues, E&S faculty value and engage in popular science outreach, including books, videos, public lectures, social media, podcasts, consulting, and policy. The E&S program strongly supports academic freedom and viewpoint diversity by welcoming a wide range of political, religious, and moral perspectives.

Graduate courses in E&S cover diverse topics such as human emotions, intelligence, altruism, alternative relationships, psychology and AI, morality, political psychology, and cannabis health research. E&S students are also expected to take courses in the biology and/or anthropology departments, and are strongly encouraged to take the quantitative/methodology emphasis.

For more information, please contact Dr. Geoffrey Miller at: gfmiller@unm.edu