John Johnson | Pennsylvania State University (original) (raw)
John A. Johnson, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the Pennsylvania State University, joined the faculty in 1981, immediately after earning his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University. He spent the 1990-91 year as visiting professor and Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Research Fellow at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. He has published over three dozen journal articles and book chapters on the personality and evolutionary psychology of moral and educational development, career choice, and work performance. Dr. Johnson is a recognized expert on computerized psychological measurement. Over half a million persons have completed his on-line personality test, which received an award from MSNBC. He recently co-edited a book published by the American Psychological Association, Advanced Methods for Conducting Online Behavioral Research.
At the DuBois Campus, Dr. Johnson has taught General Psychology, Introduction to Personality Psychology, Theory of Personality, Psychology of Gender, Basic Research Methods in Psychology, Quantitative Methods for Humanists, Quantitative Methods in the Liberal Arts, Mental Health, Psychology of Adjustment, Introduction to Well-Being and Positive Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, College Survival Skills for Academic and Career Planning, Introduction to Developmental Psychology, Introduction to Human Development and Family Studies, Industrial Psychology, Human Relations in Organizations, and Technical Writing. He has also conducted several honors sections and seminars and supervised both independent study courses and internships in psychology. As a visiting instructor at the University Park Campus, Dr. Johnson has taught Industrial Psychology, Advanced Personality Research Methods, and a graduate seminar on Ideological Groups in Psychology. He has served on master’s and doctoral committees for both the Department of Psychology and Department of Counseling and Rehabilitative Education.
Dr. Johnson’s energies since joining Penn State in 1981 have been directed primarily toward increasing the quality of undergraduate education. He has been especially interested in improving his students’ critical thinking and in tailoring classroom experiences toward different learning styles. He has introduced a number of teaching innovations over the years, including student debates about controversial issues, journal-writing, musical performances in class, projects designed to appeal to students with different learning styles, and, most recently, student collaborative work on the Internet. Dr. Johnson was recognized by his students with the DuBois Campus Professor of the Year award in 1984. He received the Provost's Collaborative and Curricular Innovations Special Recognition Program Award in 1997, was awarded a first place STAR Project Award by the Jack P. Royer Center for Learning and Academic Technologies in 1998, and was designated a Penn State Teaching Fellow for Excellence in Teaching by the Penn State Alumni Society.
Address: 129 Rushcliffe Street,
State College, PA 16803
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Graphing Jane Austen
This report gives a user introduction to the tools of Tav, a veri cation system for parallel and ... more This report gives a user introduction to the tools of Tav, a veri cation system for parallel and nondeterministic systems within the calculus of CCS. In particular Tav contains tools for deciding various notions of bisimularity between processes, and contains tools for model{checking with respect to a rather powerfull (recursive) modal logic. A distinctive feature of the tools of Tav | important from a development point of view | is, that they all o er explanations for the answers they give.
The organization of characters into eight sets forms an implicit empirical hypothesis—the hypothe... more The organization of characters into eight sets forms an implicit empirical hypothesis—the hypothesis that agonistic structure, differentiated by sex, is a fundamental shaping feature in the organization of characters in the novels. We predicted (1) that each of the eight character sets would be sharply defined by a distinct and integrated array of features, that these features would correlate in sharply defined ways with the emotional responses of readers, and that both the features of characters and the emotional responses of readers would correlate, on the average, with character role assignments; (2) that characters identified as protagonists and their friends and associates would have attributed to them, on average, the features to which readers are most attracted and that they most admire; (3) that characters identified as antagonists and their friends and associates would have attributed to them, on average, the characteristics for which readers feel an aversion and of which they disapprove; (4) that protagonists would most completely realize the approbatory tendencies in reader response; and (5) that antagonists would most completely realize the aversive tendencies. Taken individually, each of these propositions might seem obvious, but only if one presupposes the validity of the terms “protagonist” and “antagonist”—the very terms our study is designed to put to the test.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
For the novels of Jane Austen, quantitative methods provide new evidence on disputed issues, offe... more For the novels of Jane Austen, quantitative methods provide new evidence on disputed issues, offer opportunities for confirming and refining the best insights of traditional criticism, and provide a deeper and more systematic understanding of her underlying designs. For The Mayor of Casterbridge, quantitative analysis gives occasion for a more radical intervention in the critical tradition. On the thematic and tonal structures of Jane Austen’s novels, critics have reached a very high degree of consensus. Most major differences arise only at the highest level of thematic reduction—the level at which common observations are located within global theoretical paradigms. In Austen’s case, global theories have little impact on the analytic summary that constitutes the bulk of most criticism. The Mayor of Casterbridge, in contrast, presents a major interpretive puzzle.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
Oxford University Press eBooks, Aug 1, 2016
Literature did not become the subject ofan academic discipline until the last two decades of the ... more Literature did not become the subject ofan academic discipline until the last two decades of the 19th century and, until the 1940s, liter ary scholarship consisted chiefly ofphilological and historical schol arship and moralized aesthetic commentary (Abrams 1997; Graff 2007). During the 1930s, "The New Criticism" introduced methods for the intensive formal analysis oftheme, tone, and style. During the late 1970s, "poststructuralism" or "postmodernism," spearheaded by the "deconstructive" philosophy ofJacques Derrida, produced a revolution in literary studies. Deconstruction identifies language or "discourse" as the primary constitutive material of human experi ence. In its political aspect, post structuralism seeks to undermine traditionally dominant terms in social, psychological, and sexual binaries: ruling classes versus the oppressed, whites versus people of color, colonialists versus colonized peoples, mentally healthy people versus the insane, law-abiding citizens versus outlaws, males versus females, and heterosexuals versus homosexuals. In modern Western civilization, science is itself a dominant cultural value and is con trasted with terms such as superstition, foith, ignorance, mysticism, and ideology. In its epistemological aspect, poststructuralist theo ries of science seek to undermine the ideas of "truth" and "reality" through which science claims normative epistemic authority (Gross
Jane Austen bulks larger than any other single author in the data set. Out of the total of 435 ch... more Jane Austen bulks larger than any other single author in the data set. Out of the total of 435 characters in the data set, 56, or about 13 percent, are from Austen novels. All of her characters together received 423 codings, or about 29 percent of the 1,470 codings for the whole data set. Since we have averaged the ratings for characters who receive more than one coding, each Austen character, no matter how many codings he or she receives, counts only once in the total set of scores for all 435 characters.
Handbook of Personality Psychology, 1997
PART I: METHODS AND RESULTS A User's Manual Agonistic Structure Differentiated by Sex PART II... more PART I: METHODS AND RESULTS A User's Manual Agonistic Structure Differentiated by Sex PART II: IMPLICATIONS Determinate Meanings Sexual Politics Adaptive Function PART III: CASE STUDIES Jane Austen, by the Numbers Indifferent Tragedy in The Mayor of Casterbridge
Psychological Reports, 1982
This study explored entry level achievement characteristics of 132 youth and adults who read belo... more This study explored entry level achievement characteristics of 132 youth and adults who read below fifth grade equivalent who volunteered to participate in an adult tutorial project. Specifically, reading, self-esteem, listening comprehension, and verbal language levels were measured and analyzed to substantiate observed characteristics of adult illiterates and to examine a developmental reading model of adult beginning readers. Analysis demonstrated that subjects had low levels of listening comprehension and verbal language as well as reading. Contrary to reports from informal observations, self-esteem was not substantially below average or significantly related to reading, listening comprehension, or verbal language. However, verbal language was significantly related to both listening comprehension and reading. Listening comprehension and verbal language achievement appeared to be higher than reading achievement. Further research is needed to explore the extent to which low intell...
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1982
Examined the effectiveness of specific psychoeducational tutoring methods on achievement in readi... more Examined the effectiveness of specific psychoeducational tutoring methods on achievement in reading, self-esteem, auding, and verbal language. Ss (iV = 132) were youths and adults reading below fifth level who volunteered to participate in an adult tutorial project. After the assessment of entry level achievement, 5s received psychoeducational tutoring. Comparison of prewith posttest scores indicated that 5s made significant improvement in reading, self-esteem, auding, and verbal language. Pretest scores were related most strongly to posttest scores. Initial verbal language scores were related significantly to posttest reading and auding scores. The study also tested the adfequacy of a developmental reading model for adult illiterates. Auding and verbal language scores exceeded reading scores, as theorized. Further research is needed to determine whether gains in achievement continue and whether low intellectual levels or specific language disabilities are contributing to the low levels of reading, auding, and verbal language. Results of the Adult Performance Level study that estimated that some 23 imllion adults are functionally illiterate spurred the publication of numerous surveys and descriptions of adult illiteracy programs (Hunter & Harman, 1979; Kozol, 1980; Newton, 1980). Included in one survey was a search to identify the effectiveness of these programs. Investigators concluded that little statistical data are available to indicate achievement or impact of adult literacy projects (Hunter & Harman, 1979). However, informal reports of literacy projects funded by federal education agencies are available.
Graphing Jane Austen, 2012
Poetics, Apr 1, 2021
Paradoxically, villainous characters in film, literature, and video games can be very popular. Pr... more Paradoxically, villainous characters in film, literature, and video games can be very popular. Previous research in the traditions of cognitive media theory and affective disposition theory has assumed that villainous characters can inspire positive engagement only when audiences discount the villains' immorality by focusing on positive traits or mitigating circumstances. Challenging this assumption, we argue that audiences with a conventionally immoral personality profile may come to engage positively with villainous characters because they share the villains' immoral outlook to some significant degree. We find robust support for this hypothesis in a North American sample (n = 1805) by comparing respondents' survey scores on the "dark triad" of personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) with their professed degrees of villain identification, fascination, empathy, and enjoyment. We reject a competing hypothesis that such positive forms of engagement with villainous characters will be best predicted by respondents' agentic values, such as autonomy and competence. Our results support a need to consider personality as a basic determinant of character preferences.
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Jul 1, 2020
Horror entertainment is a thriving and paradoxical industry. Who are the consumers of horror, and... more Horror entertainment is a thriving and paradoxical industry. Who are the consumers of horror, and why do they seek out frightening media? We provide support for the threat simulation theory of horror, according to which horror media provides a form of benign masochism that offers negative emotional stimulation through simulation of threat scenarios. Through an online survey of genre use and preference as well as personality traits and paranormal beliefs (n=1070), we find that sensation seeking and the fifth of the Big-Five factors, intellect/imagination, predict liking of horror and frequency of use. Gender, educational level, and age are also correlated with horror liking and frequency of use (males show higher liking and more frequent use, whereas liking and use frequency are negatively correlated with educational level and age). People with stronger beliefs in the paranormal tend to seek out horror media with supernatural content, whereas those with weaker beliefs in the paranormal gravitate toward horror media with natural content, suggesting that people seek out horror media with threatening stimuli that they perceive to be plausible. While frightening media may be initially aversive, people high in sensation seeking and intellect/imagination, in particular, like intellectual stimulation and challenge and expect not just negative but also positive emotions from horror consumption. They brave the initially aversive response to simulate threats and so enter a positive feedback loop by which they attain adaptive mastery through coping with virtual simulated danger.
One explanation for why people engage in frightening fictional experiences is that these experien... more One explanation for why people engage in frightening fictional experiences is that these experiences can act as simulations of actual experiences from which individuals can gather information and model possible worlds. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study (n = 310) tested whether past and current engagement with thematically relevant media fictions, including horror and pandemic films, was associated with greater preparedness for and psychological resilience toward the pandemic. Since morbid curiosity has previously been associated with horror media use during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also tested whether trait morbid curiosity was associated with pandemic preparedness and psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that fans of horror films exhibited greater resilience during the pandemic and that fans of “prepper” genres (alien-invasion, apocalyptic, and zombie films) exhibited both greater resilience and preparedness. We also found that trait mor...
Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, 2017
How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into... more How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into the social sciences and humanities? Are the "science wars" over? Or do whole blocs of disciplines face off over an unbridgeable epistemic gap? To answer questions like these, contributors to top journals in 22 disciplines were surveyed on their beliefs about human nature, culture, and science. More than 600 respondents completed the survey. Scoring patterns divided into two main sets of disciplines. Genetic influences were emphasized in the evolutionary social sciences, evolutionary humanities, psychology, empirical study of the arts, philosophy, economics, and political science. Environmental influences were emphasized in most of the humanities disciplines and in anthropology, sociology, education, and women's or gender studies. Confidence in scientific explanation correlated positively with emphasizing genetic influences on behavior, and negatively with emphasizing environmental influences. Knowing the current actual landscape of belief should help scholars avoid sterile debates and ease the way toward fruitful collaborations with neighboring disciplines.
Evolutionary Psychology, 2008
The current research investigated the psychological differences between protagonists and antagoni... more The current research investigated the psychological differences between protagonists and antagonists in literature and the impact of these differences on readers. It was hypothesized that protagonists would embody cooperative motives and behaviors that are valued by egalitarian hunter-gatherers groups, whereas antagonists would demonstrate status-seeking and dominance behaviors that are stigmatized in such groups. This hypothesis was tested with an online questionnaire listing characters from 201 canonical British novels of the longer nineteenth century. 519 respondents generated 1470 protocols on 435 characters. Respondents identified the characters as protagonists, antagonists, or minor characters, judged the characters' motives according to human life history theory, rated the characters' traits according to the five-factor model of personality, and specified their own emotional responses to the characters on categories adapted from Ekman's seven basic emotions. As ex...
Scientific Study of Literature, 2012
Building on findings in evolutionary psychology, we constructed a model of human nature and used ... more Building on findings in evolutionary psychology, we constructed a model of human nature and used it to illuminate the evolved psychology that shapes the organization of characters in nineteenth-century British novels. Characters were rated on the web by 519 scholars and students of Victorian literature. Rated categories include motives, criteria for selecting marital partners, personality traits, and the emotional responses of readers. Respondents assigned characters to roles as protagonists, antagonists, or associates of protagonists or antagonists. We conclude that protagonists and their associates form communities of cooperative endeavor. Antagonists exemplify dominance behavior that threatens community cohesion. We summarize results from the whole body of novels and use them to identify distinctive features in the novels of Jane Austen.
Graphing Jane Austen
This report gives a user introduction to the tools of Tav, a veri cation system for parallel and ... more This report gives a user introduction to the tools of Tav, a veri cation system for parallel and nondeterministic systems within the calculus of CCS. In particular Tav contains tools for deciding various notions of bisimularity between processes, and contains tools for model{checking with respect to a rather powerfull (recursive) modal logic. A distinctive feature of the tools of Tav | important from a development point of view | is, that they all o er explanations for the answers they give.
The organization of characters into eight sets forms an implicit empirical hypothesis—the hypothe... more The organization of characters into eight sets forms an implicit empirical hypothesis—the hypothesis that agonistic structure, differentiated by sex, is a fundamental shaping feature in the organization of characters in the novels. We predicted (1) that each of the eight character sets would be sharply defined by a distinct and integrated array of features, that these features would correlate in sharply defined ways with the emotional responses of readers, and that both the features of characters and the emotional responses of readers would correlate, on the average, with character role assignments; (2) that characters identified as protagonists and their friends and associates would have attributed to them, on average, the features to which readers are most attracted and that they most admire; (3) that characters identified as antagonists and their friends and associates would have attributed to them, on average, the characteristics for which readers feel an aversion and of which they disapprove; (4) that protagonists would most completely realize the approbatory tendencies in reader response; and (5) that antagonists would most completely realize the aversive tendencies. Taken individually, each of these propositions might seem obvious, but only if one presupposes the validity of the terms “protagonist” and “antagonist”—the very terms our study is designed to put to the test.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
For the novels of Jane Austen, quantitative methods provide new evidence on disputed issues, offe... more For the novels of Jane Austen, quantitative methods provide new evidence on disputed issues, offer opportunities for confirming and refining the best insights of traditional criticism, and provide a deeper and more systematic understanding of her underlying designs. For The Mayor of Casterbridge, quantitative analysis gives occasion for a more radical intervention in the critical tradition. On the thematic and tonal structures of Jane Austen’s novels, critics have reached a very high degree of consensus. Most major differences arise only at the highest level of thematic reduction—the level at which common observations are located within global theoretical paradigms. In Austen’s case, global theories have little impact on the analytic summary that constitutes the bulk of most criticism. The Mayor of Casterbridge, in contrast, presents a major interpretive puzzle.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
Oxford University Press eBooks, Aug 1, 2016
Literature did not become the subject ofan academic discipline until the last two decades of the ... more Literature did not become the subject ofan academic discipline until the last two decades of the 19th century and, until the 1940s, liter ary scholarship consisted chiefly ofphilological and historical schol arship and moralized aesthetic commentary (Abrams 1997; Graff 2007). During the 1930s, "The New Criticism" introduced methods for the intensive formal analysis oftheme, tone, and style. During the late 1970s, "poststructuralism" or "postmodernism," spearheaded by the "deconstructive" philosophy ofJacques Derrida, produced a revolution in literary studies. Deconstruction identifies language or "discourse" as the primary constitutive material of human experi ence. In its political aspect, post structuralism seeks to undermine traditionally dominant terms in social, psychological, and sexual binaries: ruling classes versus the oppressed, whites versus people of color, colonialists versus colonized peoples, mentally healthy people versus the insane, law-abiding citizens versus outlaws, males versus females, and heterosexuals versus homosexuals. In modern Western civilization, science is itself a dominant cultural value and is con trasted with terms such as superstition, foith, ignorance, mysticism, and ideology. In its epistemological aspect, poststructuralist theo ries of science seek to undermine the ideas of "truth" and "reality" through which science claims normative epistemic authority (Gross
Jane Austen bulks larger than any other single author in the data set. Out of the total of 435 ch... more Jane Austen bulks larger than any other single author in the data set. Out of the total of 435 characters in the data set, 56, or about 13 percent, are from Austen novels. All of her characters together received 423 codings, or about 29 percent of the 1,470 codings for the whole data set. Since we have averaged the ratings for characters who receive more than one coding, each Austen character, no matter how many codings he or she receives, counts only once in the total set of scores for all 435 characters.
Handbook of Personality Psychology, 1997
PART I: METHODS AND RESULTS A User's Manual Agonistic Structure Differentiated by Sex PART II... more PART I: METHODS AND RESULTS A User's Manual Agonistic Structure Differentiated by Sex PART II: IMPLICATIONS Determinate Meanings Sexual Politics Adaptive Function PART III: CASE STUDIES Jane Austen, by the Numbers Indifferent Tragedy in The Mayor of Casterbridge
Psychological Reports, 1982
This study explored entry level achievement characteristics of 132 youth and adults who read belo... more This study explored entry level achievement characteristics of 132 youth and adults who read below fifth grade equivalent who volunteered to participate in an adult tutorial project. Specifically, reading, self-esteem, listening comprehension, and verbal language levels were measured and analyzed to substantiate observed characteristics of adult illiterates and to examine a developmental reading model of adult beginning readers. Analysis demonstrated that subjects had low levels of listening comprehension and verbal language as well as reading. Contrary to reports from informal observations, self-esteem was not substantially below average or significantly related to reading, listening comprehension, or verbal language. However, verbal language was significantly related to both listening comprehension and reading. Listening comprehension and verbal language achievement appeared to be higher than reading achievement. Further research is needed to explore the extent to which low intell...
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1982
Examined the effectiveness of specific psychoeducational tutoring methods on achievement in readi... more Examined the effectiveness of specific psychoeducational tutoring methods on achievement in reading, self-esteem, auding, and verbal language. Ss (iV = 132) were youths and adults reading below fifth level who volunteered to participate in an adult tutorial project. After the assessment of entry level achievement, 5s received psychoeducational tutoring. Comparison of prewith posttest scores indicated that 5s made significant improvement in reading, self-esteem, auding, and verbal language. Pretest scores were related most strongly to posttest scores. Initial verbal language scores were related significantly to posttest reading and auding scores. The study also tested the adfequacy of a developmental reading model for adult illiterates. Auding and verbal language scores exceeded reading scores, as theorized. Further research is needed to determine whether gains in achievement continue and whether low intellectual levels or specific language disabilities are contributing to the low levels of reading, auding, and verbal language. Results of the Adult Performance Level study that estimated that some 23 imllion adults are functionally illiterate spurred the publication of numerous surveys and descriptions of adult illiteracy programs (Hunter & Harman, 1979; Kozol, 1980; Newton, 1980). Included in one survey was a search to identify the effectiveness of these programs. Investigators concluded that little statistical data are available to indicate achievement or impact of adult literacy projects (Hunter & Harman, 1979). However, informal reports of literacy projects funded by federal education agencies are available.
Graphing Jane Austen, 2012
Poetics, Apr 1, 2021
Paradoxically, villainous characters in film, literature, and video games can be very popular. Pr... more Paradoxically, villainous characters in film, literature, and video games can be very popular. Previous research in the traditions of cognitive media theory and affective disposition theory has assumed that villainous characters can inspire positive engagement only when audiences discount the villains' immorality by focusing on positive traits or mitigating circumstances. Challenging this assumption, we argue that audiences with a conventionally immoral personality profile may come to engage positively with villainous characters because they share the villains' immoral outlook to some significant degree. We find robust support for this hypothesis in a North American sample (n = 1805) by comparing respondents' survey scores on the "dark triad" of personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) with their professed degrees of villain identification, fascination, empathy, and enjoyment. We reject a competing hypothesis that such positive forms of engagement with villainous characters will be best predicted by respondents' agentic values, such as autonomy and competence. Our results support a need to consider personality as a basic determinant of character preferences.
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Jul 1, 2020
Horror entertainment is a thriving and paradoxical industry. Who are the consumers of horror, and... more Horror entertainment is a thriving and paradoxical industry. Who are the consumers of horror, and why do they seek out frightening media? We provide support for the threat simulation theory of horror, according to which horror media provides a form of benign masochism that offers negative emotional stimulation through simulation of threat scenarios. Through an online survey of genre use and preference as well as personality traits and paranormal beliefs (n=1070), we find that sensation seeking and the fifth of the Big-Five factors, intellect/imagination, predict liking of horror and frequency of use. Gender, educational level, and age are also correlated with horror liking and frequency of use (males show higher liking and more frequent use, whereas liking and use frequency are negatively correlated with educational level and age). People with stronger beliefs in the paranormal tend to seek out horror media with supernatural content, whereas those with weaker beliefs in the paranormal gravitate toward horror media with natural content, suggesting that people seek out horror media with threatening stimuli that they perceive to be plausible. While frightening media may be initially aversive, people high in sensation seeking and intellect/imagination, in particular, like intellectual stimulation and challenge and expect not just negative but also positive emotions from horror consumption. They brave the initially aversive response to simulate threats and so enter a positive feedback loop by which they attain adaptive mastery through coping with virtual simulated danger.
One explanation for why people engage in frightening fictional experiences is that these experien... more One explanation for why people engage in frightening fictional experiences is that these experiences can act as simulations of actual experiences from which individuals can gather information and model possible worlds. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study (n = 310) tested whether past and current engagement with thematically relevant media fictions, including horror and pandemic films, was associated with greater preparedness for and psychological resilience toward the pandemic. Since morbid curiosity has previously been associated with horror media use during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also tested whether trait morbid curiosity was associated with pandemic preparedness and psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that fans of horror films exhibited greater resilience during the pandemic and that fans of “prepper” genres (alien-invasion, apocalyptic, and zombie films) exhibited both greater resilience and preparedness. We also found that trait mor...
Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, 2017
How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into... more How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into the social sciences and humanities? Are the "science wars" over? Or do whole blocs of disciplines face off over an unbridgeable epistemic gap? To answer questions like these, contributors to top journals in 22 disciplines were surveyed on their beliefs about human nature, culture, and science. More than 600 respondents completed the survey. Scoring patterns divided into two main sets of disciplines. Genetic influences were emphasized in the evolutionary social sciences, evolutionary humanities, psychology, empirical study of the arts, philosophy, economics, and political science. Environmental influences were emphasized in most of the humanities disciplines and in anthropology, sociology, education, and women's or gender studies. Confidence in scientific explanation correlated positively with emphasizing genetic influences on behavior, and negatively with emphasizing environmental influences. Knowing the current actual landscape of belief should help scholars avoid sterile debates and ease the way toward fruitful collaborations with neighboring disciplines.
Evolutionary Psychology, 2008
The current research investigated the psychological differences between protagonists and antagoni... more The current research investigated the psychological differences between protagonists and antagonists in literature and the impact of these differences on readers. It was hypothesized that protagonists would embody cooperative motives and behaviors that are valued by egalitarian hunter-gatherers groups, whereas antagonists would demonstrate status-seeking and dominance behaviors that are stigmatized in such groups. This hypothesis was tested with an online questionnaire listing characters from 201 canonical British novels of the longer nineteenth century. 519 respondents generated 1470 protocols on 435 characters. Respondents identified the characters as protagonists, antagonists, or minor characters, judged the characters' motives according to human life history theory, rated the characters' traits according to the five-factor model of personality, and specified their own emotional responses to the characters on categories adapted from Ekman's seven basic emotions. As ex...
Scientific Study of Literature, 2012
Building on findings in evolutionary psychology, we constructed a model of human nature and used ... more Building on findings in evolutionary psychology, we constructed a model of human nature and used it to illuminate the evolved psychology that shapes the organization of characters in nineteenth-century British novels. Characters were rated on the web by 519 scholars and students of Victorian literature. Rated categories include motives, criteria for selecting marital partners, personality traits, and the emotional responses of readers. Respondents assigned characters to roles as protagonists, antagonists, or associates of protagonists or antagonists. We conclude that protagonists and their associates form communities of cooperative endeavor. Antagonists exemplify dominance behavior that threatens community cohesion. We summarize results from the whole body of novels and use them to identify distinctive features in the novels of Jane Austen.
We set up a questionnaire on the web in which we listed about 2,000 characters from 200 19th-cent... more We set up a questionnaire on the web in which we listed about 2,000 characters from 200 19th-century British novels. Approximately 519 people filled out 1,470 questionnaires on 435 characters from 144 novels. Each questionnaire contained questions about the character's motives and personality and about the respondent's emotional responses to the character. Respondents also identified characters as protagonists, antagonists, or minor characters. We hypothesized that the contrast between protagonists and antagonists would display the ethos of the novels as a whole. We conclude that the novels are designed to stigmatize dominance behavior and to promote an ethos of self-effacing cooperation. That is the same ethos that anthropologist Christopher Boehm identifies in hunter-gatherer culture. We infer that the novels fulfill the same kind of social function that gossip performs in hunter-gatherer cultures. The novels form a medium through which readers affirm their membership within a cooperative community.
The Evolutionary Review (TER) provides a forum for evolutionary critiques in all the fields of th... more The Evolutionary Review (TER) provides a forum for evolutionary critiques in all the fields of the arts, human sciences, and culture: essays and reviews on film, fiction, theater, visual art, music, dance, and popular culture; essays and reviews of books, articles, and theories related to evolution and evolutionary psychology; and essays and reviews on science, society, and the environment. Essays in TER implicitly affirm E. O. Wilson's vision of "consilience," that is, the unity of knowledge. They also give evidence that an evolutionary perspective can yield a richer, more complete understanding of the world and ourselves. Criteria for selecting essays include depth and seriousness in evolutionary thinking, imaginative force, and excellence of style. Potential contributors should establish a distinct, individual point of view, avoiding academese and neutral summary. The editors value incisiveness and clarity, energy, wit and humor, vivid language and striking imagery, tonal nuance, and a knack for engaging the interest of readers. For submission guidelines, see www.evolutionaryreview.com.