Jordann Brandner

Sexual Overperception Effect
Men are more likely to perceive a woman's friendliness as sexual interest, known as the male overperception bias. Previous methods suggest that men have an adaptive bias to overperceive sexual interest as a way to reduce the evolutionary costs of a missed mating opportunity and maximize the evolutionary benefits of correctly identifying someone who is sexually interested. However, the method I use provides both a measure of bias and a measure of sensitivity, which is the ability to distinguish interest from non-interest. This additional information might inform future research about how this and other social "biases" should be examined: as a likelihood to answer one way or another or as a fundamental breakdown in understanding cues.

Tracking & Perception of Sex Ratios
Sex ratios are the ratios of men to women in an environment. My research on sex ratios focuses on the cognitive processes underlying the tracking and perception of sex ratios. One topic of interest is the cognitive bounds around sex ratio tracking. This line of research examines the sex ratio tracking process to determine how accurate people are at tracking sex ratios and how automatically they track sex ratios. I am also interested in examining the effect of individual differences, such as sexual orientation or daily experienced sex ratio, on the tracking of sex ratios.

Assessments of Mate Value
Previous research has established that certain traits are seen as desirable in a potential partner, such as kindness, intelligence, similarity, and health. However, overall mate value, the holistic evaluation of a person as a potential relationship partner, predicts many courtship outcomes. My research examines how individual traits are integrated into overall mate value using methods similar to evaluating those you see in a dating app.