BRYAN LAB
There is a great diversity of ongoing projects in the Bryan Lab, spanning the areas of health psychology, evolutionary social psychology, and basic social psychology. In addition to the main areas of research described here, please see individual graduate student webpages for related projects.
Within the area of health psychology, projects involve the study of the determinants and correlates of various health behaviors. These basic studies then inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of theory-based interventions to promote healthy behaviors. One area of study is HIV/STD risk behavior among high risk adolescents, and the promotion of condom use in that population. A second area is the transdisciplinary study of the psychological, physiological, and genetic correlates of voluntary exercise behavior, and how best to intervene to encourage sedentary populations to exercise.
Projects in the domain of evolutionary social psychology focus on attraction and mating, and the degree to which our evolutionary history influences the psychology of the evaluation and selection of mates. Specific studies consider the relative importance of personality traits, physical appearance, and demographic characteristics of potential mates, and gender differences in these preferences.
Finally, in primarily graduate-student directed projects, there are lines of inquiry involving investingations into the misperception of sexual intent, and studies taking a social neuroscience approach to the indirect physiological measurement of homophobia.