Evolutionary Social Psychology Laboratory
THE ESPL MEMBERS
Principal Investigator
Dr. Donald Sacco is the director of the Evolutionary Social Psychology Lab at USM. He is an associate professor of Social Psychology in the School of Psychology. He also serves as the chair of USM's Institutional Review Board. His research interests fall into three major categories: 1) causes and consequences of social inclusion and exclusion, 2) face perception and nonverbal behavior, and 3) how personality and motivation influence cognition and perception. For more information, check out his CV and/or contact him directly at Donald.Sacco@usm.edu.
Graduate Students
Kaitlyn Boykin is a fourth-year graduate student. Her research involves investigating social perceptions and mating strategies through an evolutionary lens. Kaitlyn's most recent work has looked at perceptions of parental abilities based on one's body type and facial characteristics. For more information, check out Kaitlyn’s CV.
Zach Buckner is a third-year graduate student. His research primarily examines factors that influence mating preferences and attraction. He is also interested in related factors such as: sex error management theory, humor, and hormones. For more information, check out Zach's CV.
Olajuwon Olagbegi is a second-year graduate student. Her current research explores status, gender differences/gender norms, gender role violations, gender stereotypes, communality and agency, tradeoffs between important motives and altruistic behaviors. For more information, check out Olajuwon's CV.
August Namuth is a second-year graduate student. His research mainly focuses on researcher ethics, questionable research practices, and researcher bias. He is also interested in group reaffiliation, social rejection, and personality. For more information, check out August's CV.
Research Assistants
Ais'Jah Hicks is a senior undergraduate at USM. She is a McNair Scholar and an Eagle Spur Award Winner. Her research interests focus on the integration of the social, evolutionary, and clinical implications of serious mental illnesses. After earning her B.S in Psychology, she plans to attend graduate school and obtain a PhD in clinical psychology with the goal to work with people with mental health disorders to acknowledge and address mental health disparities while working to provide proper representation and treatment.
Megan Goulette and Kami Kirkendall are the newest undergraduate researchers in the lab. Welcome everyone!
Graduate Lab Alumni
Dr. Alicia Macchione is an Assistant Professor at West Texas A&M University. Her research interests are centered around understanding the development and implications of stereotypic attitudes and biases in certain contexts. She is interested in understanding the minority experience--in particular the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and race, and its implications for identity development and educational attainment. Some of Alicia's recent work has focused on repairing what is often referred to as the leaky pipeline in STEM majors and careers, by examining potential interventions to help increase the participation of underrepresented groups in these fields. For more information, you can contact her directly at amacchione@wtamu.edu.
Dr. Kelsey Drea. Her primary research focuses on the perceptions of individuals who adhere to or violate gender norms and gender roles. Recently, her work has looked at gender norm violators through surname decisions (i.e., women who keep their last name or men who change their last name).
Dr. Mary Medlin is an Assistant Professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Her primary research interests include the evolutionary basis of social perceptions, primarily as it relates to attitudes regarding perceived personality characteristics, socially acceptable behaviors (e.g., sexual assault), and scientific information dissemination. Her research primarily considers how these attitudes and beliefs are shaped through personality and other socially relevant individual difference factors (e.g., political affiliation, social awareness). She has investigated these perceptions as they relate to social attitudes towards specific behaviors/ideology (e.g., rape myth acceptance, scientific attitudes, humor appreciation) and acceptability of personality characteristics (e.g., narcissism). For more information, you can contact her directly at medlin.m@wvwc.edu.
Dr. Mitch Brown is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas. His research focuses on the evolutionary basis of social cognition and perceptions, primarily as it relates to the identification of another's social value and the subsequent decisions to affiliate with or avoid them based on whether these individuals are capable of satisfying reproductive and survival needs. For more information, check out Dr. Brown's website or contact him directly at mb103@uark.edu.
Dr. Christopher Lustgraaf is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Montana State University. His work focuses primarily on social rejection, interpersonal perception through nonverbal means, and moral decision-making, all of which served an adaptive purpose in our evolutionary past. For more information, contact him directly at clustgraaf@montana.edu.
Undergraduate Lab Alumni
Meg Walters
Sarah Richert
Danielle Block
Nathaniel Horton
Katie Lolley
Haley May
Aaron Bermond
Mohamed Ismail
Seth Bridges
Brian Goff
Tyler Johnson
Melody Fletcher
Meredith Olssen
Juantario Badon
Conner King
Jesse McAlary
Breanna Parker