Trisha Dutta’s research interest lies at the intersection of social cognition and evolutionary psychology. She is broadly interested in understanding how people’s early life experiences shape social-cognitive processes. Specifically, she’s interested in investigating the following research questions, a) What are the adaptive (or maladaptive) life strategies that emerge from experiencing childhood adversities? b) How do these strategies facilitate (or impede) functioning as adults? c) What are the protective factors that minimize the negative consequences of adverse childhood experiences?

With Dr. Jon Maner, Harrison Miller studies motivation from an evolutionary perspective, with a particular focus on the psychology of social hierarchy. With Dr. Heath Maranges, he studies the morality of vigilantism. Lately, he is interested in artificial intelligence, both as a psychological construct (how do humans interact with and understand AI?) and as a tool to improve research methodologies. In his free time, he likes to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu and play poker.

Kyle Powell is broadly interested in social evolutionary psychology approaches to understanding ostracism and the influence of early childhood environments on later life outcomes. In a series of studies, he is examining the relationship between life history strategy and career choice. He is also conducting a direct replication of some seminal findings in the life history theory literature. In another ongoing study, he is looking at the relationship between ostracism and online trolling behavior. He is also conducting research with Dr. Ashby Plant on the influence of approval-seeking motivation on the sharing of politically charged memes with political ingroup and outgroup members. In his free time, Kyle enjoys playing video games, playing tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and adding to his collection of fun and wacky shirts.