Paul Eastwick, PhD

My research draws from social psychological theories and evolutionary perspectives to investigate how people initiate and maintain romantic relationships. In this talk, I will review two lines of work that address how people evaluate partners’ romantic desirability. First, I will review my program of research on mate preferences, highlighting some of the discrepancies that emerge when studies compare the traits that people saythey desire in a partner with the traits that actually inspire their romantic evaluations of real-life opposite-sex individuals. Second, I will review my program of research on mate value, which underscores how different contexts change people’s ability to achieve consensus about the desirable traits that opposite-sex potential partners possess. I will conclude by discussing the implications of these processes for the formation and stability of romantic relationships.