BussLab

Current Graduate Students

	Laith Al-Shawaf Website Email Laith Al-Shawaf joined the BussLab in August 2009 after graduating from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. His undergraduate concentrations were in Psychology, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science. Through his readings and conversations with professors, he discovered evolutionary psychology (EP), a powerful theoretical lens for understanding and explaining human cognition and behavior. In addition to his diverse interests within EP, Laith also has an interest in cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience, which he hopes to incorporate into his research at UT. Along with collaborators, he is currently working on 2 lines of research involving a) disgust sensitivity and the immune system, and b) hypothesized adaptations in women to defend against sexual coercion. He is looking forward to beginning a third line of theoretical and empirical research on Error Management Theory (EMT) and related cognitive biases.
	Kelly Asao Email Kelly entered the BussLab in the fall of 2011 after completing her B.A. with distinction in psychology from The University of Pennsylvania. She became fascinated with the field of Evolutionary Psychology under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Kurzban. While at Penn, Kelly’s research focused on mate choice copying and moral decision-making. Currently, she is interested in mate choice, flirting, friendship and morality from an evolutionary perspective. She is particularly fascinated by how status and reputation influence human decision-making.
	Dan Conroy-Beam Email Dan entered the Buss Lab in the fall of 2011 after completing his B.S. at the University of Texas. He was introduced to evolutionary psychology in his freshman year of undergraduate and has been fascinated with the field ever since. Dan's interests fall primarily within the mating domain, particularly on mate copying and behavior changes surrounding ovulation.
	Cari Goetz Website Email After earning her B.S. in Psychobiology from UCLA, Cari joined the Buss Lab in the fall of 2007. At UCLA, she was fortunate enough to gain exposure to the evolutionary approach to studying human thoughts and behavior through involvement in the labs and coursework of both Dr. Dan Fessler and Dr. Martie Haselton. Cari has come to appreciate Evolutionary Psychology as a valuable perspective that draws on various disciplines to explain the way we think and act. While she is fascinated by most EP-based inquiries, some of her main research interests lie in areas of mating and female sexuality.
	David Lewis Email David joined the BussLab in 2005 after obtaining his B.A. in Biology and Spanish from Tufts University. David currently has two broad programs of research, one exploring the evolution of friendship, and one exploring the “reactive heritability” of personality. His work on friendship includes identifying the distinct types of friends men and women have and the adaptive problems these friends help solve. His work also explores the effect that the unintentional costs and benefits we receive from our friends have on how we behave towards them. David’s work on “reactive heritability” investigates how heritable individual differences in personality emerge from a universal human psychology in response to heritable, non-personality attributes important to natural and sexual selection. David eagerly and enthusiastically welcomes any interested collaborators to contact him.