EP 021 | Dan Conroy-Beam, PhD

Dan Conroy-Beam is a professor of developmental and evolutionary psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his B.S. in Psychology and his Ph.D. in Individual Differences and Evolutionary Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin where he worked closely with his advisor, David Buss. He joined the faculty of University of California Santa Barbara in 2016.  Dr. Conroy-Beam uses an evolutionary perspective to understand how mate preferences are linked to actual mating outcomes. Specifically, he is interested in how mate preferences are integrated with one another computationally in order to make mating decisions. His work combines agent-based modeling of mate choice evolution with studies of real couples to compare and explore candidate algorithms for how people select their mating strategies, evaluate potential mates, and regulate their relationships. He currently runs and leads the Computational Mate Choice Lab.   LINKS: Computational Mate Choice Lab: http://www.danconroybeam.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/dconroybeam?lang=en  PODCAST MOMENTS:  1:34 Personal Background 24:27 Bowerbird Mating Competition 31:05 Current Research  38:33 Mate Selection in Our Modern World 46:49 Personality Traits and Mate Preference 50:44 “The Ideal Prototype” 1:05:01 Arranged Marriages 1:08:40 Future Directions of Dr. Conroy-Beam’s Research 1:11:07 Graduate School Advice 1:17:52 The Importance of Mentorship  1:20:50 Next Big Thing in Evolutionary Psych?  1:25:50 Sigmund Freud   __________________________________________________  Connect with us on social media @armchairscholars   TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@armchair_scholars   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armchairscholars/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/armchairscholars Anchor: https://anchor.fm/brendan-byrne9