Hawley Projects

Projects | E-SPARC LAB

Evolution- Skills, Personal Relationships, Aggression & Resource Control
Mapping Miss USA
	Can evolutionary attitudes across the Uniited States. We believe they can, and we have started by employing GIS mapping techniques to data derived by the contenstants of the Miss USA pageant (2011) in response to the question, Should evolution be taught in schools? This work was presented at International GIS Day at KU and won 2nd place in the student competition. See the award winning talk> Mapping Miss USA talk See the award winning map> USA GIS map based on responses of Miss USA contestants
Buss & Hawley: The Evolution of Personality and Individual Differences
	From the cover: Capturing a scientific change in thinking about personality and individual differences that has been building over the past 15 years, this volume stands at an important moment in the development of psychology as a discipline. Rather than viewing individual differences as merely the raw material upon which selection operates, the contributing authors provide theories and empirical evidence which suggest that personality and individual differences are central to evolved psychological mechanisms and behavioral functioning. The book draws theoretical inspiration from life history theory, evolutionary genetics, molecular genetics, developmental psychology, personality psychology, and evolutionary psychology, while utilizing the theories of the "best and the brightest" international scientists working on this cutting edge paradigm shift. Contributing authors: David Buss, Pat Hawley, Frank Sulloway, Judith Rich Harris, Geoffrey Miller, Lars Penke, David Sloan Wilson, Leif Kennair, Bruce Ellis, Jay Belsky, Marco del Giudice, Andrea Comperio Ciani, A.J. Figueredo, Steve Gangestad, Daniel Nettle, David Schmitt, Nancy Segal, Matthew Keller, Niels Dingemanse, and Denis Reale.
Evolutionary Attitudes and Literacy
	Hawley, P.H., Little, T.D., Sunderland, T.R., & Mendoza, C.M. (May, 2009). What's the Matter With Kansas? Psychometric Validation of the Evolutionary Attitudes and Literacy Survey. Poster presented at the annual meeting of Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Fullerton, CA. Poster excerpt: It is certainly no secret that Kansans have problems with evolutionary theory. The ‘debate’ in Kansas has led the state to be the brunt of jokes on the web (the Onion), television (Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show), and print magazines (The New Yorker). Kansas claims John Calvert, J.D., Managing Director of the ID Network, as one of its residents. Calvert played a central role in the “Kansas Evolution Hearings” in May of 2005, an event widely held by the scientific community to be a ‘kangaroo court’. So, what’s the matter with Kansas? To find out, we sought to create a standardized survey to assess not only political and spiritual leanings, but also knowledge of evolution, distrust of the evolutionary enterprise, and attitudes towards and objections against evolutionary theory. Our goal ultimately is to predict endorsement of intelligent design fallacies and to assess the curricular effectiveness of courses on evolution and/or biology. Coverage on NPR: Story, my letter of correction to their biased story Click here for NEEPS poster Click here and here for two MPA student posters
Social Relationships, Well-Being, and Health in College Students
	This project encompasses many diverse aspects of social and personal functioning (e.g., personality, attachment, well-being, affect) and their interrelationships with group level and dyadic social dynamics. As with all of our projects, social dominance is of special focus. We wish to explore how it manifests and plays out in a well-functioning adult population, and whether it impacts happiness, social integration, annd physical health..
			Aggression

Aggression and Adaptation: The Bright Side to Bad Behavior Traditional developmental models align social competence primarily with prosocial behavior while holding aggression to be an indicator of social incompetence. My evolutionary model of social dominance (i.e., Resource Control Theory) in contrast does not bind aggression with social maladaptation. Our work demonstrates that individuals who are the most effective at competition in childhood and adolescence are both prosocial/sociable and highly aggressive. Yet, they suffer few of negative social repercussions or social skills deficits characteristic of the children who are purely aggressive; that is, these ‘bistrategics’ are well-liked, have quality friendships, and are morally astute and socially skilled. Our current projects are exploring in more depth forms and functions of aggression in college students, and their relationships to social success and well-being.
Power and Sexual Fantasy

	Social Dominance and Forceful Submission Fantasies: Feminine Pathology or Power? Assumptions about human sexuality (e.g., male dominance, female submission) generally lead to the exclusive focus on females when it comes to forceful submission fantasies common to romance novels ("bodice rippers"). Moreover, such fantasies have been linked to guilt or anxiety for a century (e.g., Freud, 1908). In contrast, we suggest that forceful submission invokes power rather than weakness to the fantasist because the fantasy object is provoked uncontrollably by the fantasist’s allure. This idea, however, has not been seriously tested (though it emerged in the 70s). In keeping with our overall program, we seek to explore the associations of such fantasy to female power.Our first study shows that agentic, dominant women find forceful submission fantasies more appealing than do subordinate women. Additionally, dominant women ascribe a different meaning to the object of the fantasy than subordinate women ("warrior lover" versus "white knight"). Our current work involves dissecting such stories in great detail to see what drives appeal. In any case, we do not find evidence that there is anything "wrong" with women who enjoy this fantasy. See our coverage on the Psychology Today website: Vol 1 , Vol 2.

		Early Development of Social Skills and Peer Relationships

Our most long running developmental project centers on the social functioning and socioemotional development of very young children. Primary focus is on the social dominance construct; what predicts it, how is it associated with social phenomena (e.g., being well-liked, respected), its stability over time, etc. This work has its roots in observational and quasi-experimental foundations set up in Berlin, Germany and has been represented in Discover Magazine and National Public Radio. Funding has been generously supplied by the HF Guggenheim Foundation.