Human Smartphone Interaction
With Dr. Frances Chen, Dr. Beall is investigating the role of specific features of modern smartphones in influencing users' emotions, cognitions, and smartphone application usage. More information on Dr. Beall's role in the UBC Social Health Laboratory can be found HERE.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Also with Dr. Frances Chen, Dr. Beall is investigating the role of motivational and neurochemical processes in orienting and driving attentional biases in visual perception and physiological responses to social stimuli. More information on this specific project and Dr. Beall's role in the UBC Social Health Laboratory can be found HERE.
Experimental Social Psychology
With Dr. Mark Schaller, Dr. Beall has investigated the psychological implications of a hypothesized evolutionary trade-off between effort devoted to mating and parenting. Specifically, he has shown that men who believe they possess sexually attractive traits- as well as individuals who are chronically oriented towards unrestricted, short-term mating strategies- exhibit an attenuated parental emotional response to human infants; Dr. Beall also conducted experimental follow-ups to these published findings and found that the temporary activation of parenting goals temporarily suppresses short-term mating motives (and vice-versa). This line of work was also the subject of Dr. Beall's doctoral dissertation which can be found HERE.
Theoretical Social Psychology
With Dr. Jessica Tracy, Dr. Beall has championed a novel framework for understanding the evolutionary emergence of distinct emotions (e.g., happiness, romantic love, pride). Specifically, by integrating contemporary emotions research with current evolutionary perspectives on human motivation his theory suggests that a host of distinct emotions have co-evolved with fundamental motivational systems to galvanize physiological, psychological, and behavioral responses geared towards solving recurrent adaptive problems encountered throughout hominid evolution.
Other Behavioral Science
Dr. Beall has investigated the role of infectious disease outbreaks on political outcomes, showing that an Ebola outbreak during
the 2014 U.S. federal elections was associated with an increased intention to vote for Republican candidates.
He has also investigated the role of emotion expressions in first-impression sexual attraction, the role of the color red in first-impression sexual attraction, and the role of women's menstrual cycle phase on clothing choice.
More information on these specific projects can be found HERE.
