evolutionary psychology

Shame closely tracks the threat of devaluation by others, even across cultures

We test the theory that shame evolved as a defense against being devalued by others. By hypothesis, shame is a neurocomputational program tailored by selection to orchestrate cognition, motivation, physiology, and behavior in the service of: (i) …

The Right Side? Under Time Pressure, Approach Motivation Leads to Right-Oriented Bias

Approach motivation, a focus on achieving positive outcomes, is related to relative left-hemispheric brain activation, which translates to a variety of right-oriented behavioral biases. In two studies, we found that approach-motivated individuals …