Investigating the evolution of human traits and the maintenance of heritable individual differences (2012-2014)

This project will use twin studies, statistical genetics, and experimental methods to investigate genetic and environmental influences on evolutionarily relevant human traits - these include mating behaviour, personality, cognition, and facial appearance. This will help resolve fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and psychology: the processes by which human traits evolved and the mechanisms by which heritable individual differences are maintained despite Darwinian selection favouring only the most advantageous genes. By unifying evolutionary and genetic approaches to understanding human behaviour, this project will reveal novel insights into what makes us all human and yet so different from each other.