We are located in the Psychology Department at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, USA. Headed by Dr. Lisa Welling, this lab focuses on factors that affect person perception, individual differences in preferences, hormone-mediated behavior, evolutionary approaches to mate choice, and other aspects of human relationships. 

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In addition to internal funding sources, our research has been funded by the NSERC (Canada), the ESRC (UK), the ORSAS (UK), and the AIB (USA).

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18 April, 2025 >> Congratulations to Kat Sheetz, who has officially passed her comprehensive exam! 

9 April, 2025 >> Congratulations to Dr. Lisa Welling, who was inducted into the Order of the Golden Plume! This is an award granted by graduating seniors to faculty who have "dedicated timeless and passionate commitment to student success."

4 April, 2025 >> Congratulations to lab EMBARK student Silvana Iskandar, who received the Reviewer's Choice Abstract Award at the OU Graduate Student Research Conference! Great job, Silvana!

10 March, 2025 >> Drs. Welling, Shackelford, and Delecce have been awarded an Oakland University Research Excellence Fund grant valued at $15,000 to investigate factors impacting human sperm competition!

5 March, 2025 >> Dr. Lisa Welling has been awarded Oakland University 2025 Faculty Research Fellowship grant valued at $10,000 to investigate the association between competition-induced testosterone increases and mate preferences!

27 February, 2025 >> Congratulations to Dr. Lisa Welling on being awarded a sabbatical for Fall 2025! 

16-19 January, 2025 >> Dr. Lisa Welling joined a fantastic group of clinicians from the Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine at the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD) meeting in San Diego, CA! Dr. Welling and others presented interesting research on ADHD from collaborative projects.

24 December, 2024 >> A collaborative paper with colleagues at the Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine has been accepted for publication at BMC Psychiatry! The paper (authors: Joel Young, Richard Powell, Anna Powell, Lisa Welling, Lauren Granata, Jaime Saal, and Margot Nash) is titled "Extended-release amphetamine (Dyanavel XR) is associated with reduced immediate-release supplementation in adults with ADHD, regardless of baseline patient variables: A retrospective cohort analysis of medical treatment records."

23 September, 2024 >> Our paper by Tara DeLecce, Gavin Vance, Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Lisa Welling, and Todd Shackelford titled "Ejaculate adjustment in response to sperm competition risk in humans" has been accepted for publication in Archives of Sexual Behavior!

12-16 July, 2024 >> Tara Delecce presented work that was done in collaboration with the lab at the International Society for Human Ethology's annual meeting in Arcata, California. 

22-25 May, 2024 >> Lisa Welling and former lab member Justin Mogilski presented research at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society's annual meeting in Aarhus, Denmark. 

21 April, 2024 >> Congratulations to Jenna Lunge on being awarded the 2024 Feminist Evolutionary Society's Best Student Talk award at the Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society's annual meeting in Niagara Falls, New York! 

10 April, 2024 >> Our paper on relationship initiation and dissolution behaviors associated with the fear of being single by Lisa Welling and Kayla Shephard has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Personality Psychology!

2 April, 2024 >> Congratulations to Kat Sheetz on successfully defending her MS thesis! Kat's thesis investigates the influence of birth control on acceptance of trustworthy vs. untrustworthy male online dating profiles. 

19 March, 2024 >> Congratulations to Kat Sheetz on accepting a PhD position in our lab! 

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