Martie Haselton

About

Martie Haselton is an interdisciplinary evolutionary scientist who studies how evolution has shaped the social mind. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms guiding women’s sexual decision making, particularly how these mechanisms have evolved to take conception probability into account during the brief fertility window each month. Her recent work has involved testing hypotheses related to ovulation cues, including collecting photographs, vocal recordings, and body odor samples from women to examine whether there are detectable cues of ovulation that others can perceive. Her findings suggest that women wear more attractive and revealing clothing, have higher vocal pitch, and emit more attractive body odors during high-fertility days of their cycle, challenging the long-held assumption that human ovulation is concealed. This research has significant implications for understanding fluctuations in attraction, relationship dynamics, and social behavior. In addition to her work on female fertility cues, Haselton has investigated the role of reproductive hormones in other areas of life, including postpartum hormonal effects on maternal mental health. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Texas, Austin, and has earned master's and bachelor's degrees in Psychology from the College of William & Mary and the University of San Diego, respectively. Her research interests encompass intimate relationships, psychology of mating, social endocrinology, bias in…

Research topics

• Sociology
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Computer Science
• Social Science
• Epistemology
• Ecology
• Developmental psychology
• Environmental ethics
• Medicine

Selected publications

• The pandemic exposes human nature: 10 evolutionary insights

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 110 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Humans and viruses have been coevolving for millennia. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19) has been particularly successful in evading our evolved defenses. The outcome has been tragic-across the globe, millions have been sickened and hundreds of thousands have died. Moreover, the quarantine has radically changed the structure of our lives, with devastating social and economic consequences that are likely to unfold for years. An evolutiona…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Psychological Science in the Wake of COVID-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations

  Perspectives on Psychological Science · 2021 · 66 citations

  The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic's wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon-an event that hinges on human-to-human contact-we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology. We highlight specific psychological phenomena th…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Why women choose divorce: An evolutionary perspective

  Current Opinion in Psychology · 2021 · 47 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  In Western dual-educated, male-female marriages, women who divorce face greater burdens because of decreased income and primary or sole responsibility for caring for children than men who divorce. Why, then, do these women initiate divorce more and fare better psychologically after a divorce than men? Here, we articulate an evolutionary mismatch perspective, informed by key findings in relationship science. We argue that mismatches between women's evolved preferences and configurations of modern…

  PublisherDOI

• “Fast” women? The effects of childhood environments on women's developmental timing, mating strategies, and reproductive outcomes

  Evolution and Human Behavior · 2021-12-28 · 37 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Strange Bedfellows: The Alliance Theory of Political Belief Systems

  Psychological Inquiry · 2023-07-03 · 31 citations

  articleSenior author

  What explains the contents of political belief systems? A widespread view is that they derive from abstract values, like equality, tolerance, and authority. Here, we challenge this view, arguing instead that belief systems derive from political alliance structures that vary across nations and time periods. When partisans mobilize support for their political allies, they generate patchwork narratives that appeal to ad-hoc, and often incompatible, moral principles. In the first part of the paper,…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kelly A. Gildersleeve

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  40 shared

• David M. Buss

  24 shared

• David A. Frederick

  20 shared

• Melissa R. Fales

  University of California, Los Angeles

  19 shared

• Jordane Boudesseul

  Université Paris Nanterre

  17 shared

• Laurent Bègue

  Hôpital Saint-Michel

  17 shared

• Steven W. Gangestad

  University of New Mexico

  15 shared

• Elizabeth G. Pillsworth

  California State University, Fullerton

  14 shared

Labs

• UCLA Advertising and Marketing TeamPI

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