PSYCH 2040: Attraction: An Evolutionary Approach

Course Description

This course examines the topics of interpersonal and sexual attraction in a scientific context through the milieu of popular media outlets as well as published empirical literature from the fields of Psychology, Anthropology, Ecology, Economics, and Gender Studies. Specific topics include attraction cues, jealousy, monogamy, infidelity, the economics of sex, and the long-term and short-term mating strategies of men and women. We will also investigate the technological and media manipulation of sexual cues, as well as conflicts between the sexes, religion and sex, the peopling of the earth, the fundamentals of evolved psychological mechanisms, identifying adaptive problems and potential solutions, gender roles, parental investment, issues of kinship, and inter- and intra-sexual competition.