Accepting 2 PhD students in psychology of EA for next year

For EAs considering graduate study in a psychology PhD program:

I plan to accept 2 new graduate students to start in August 2023, for psychology program at University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, USA), to do research on the psychological issues related to Effective Altruism. I’m developing a research program focused on the evolutionary/moral psychology of longtermism, existential risks, and AI alignment, but I’m also open to students interested in animal sentience and welfare, mental health, charity-giving, virtue-signaling, consequentialist reasoning, etc.

I am looking for bright, motivated, stable, conscientious students with strong GPAs, good research experience, and solid academic training in evolutionary psychology, biology, anthropology, genetics, psychometrics, cognitive science, and/or Artificial Intelligence. Familiarity with Effective Altruism would be a big plus. I would welcome both US citizens and non-US students, e.g. from the UK, Europe, or China, as long as their English proficiency is good.

Please feel free to forward this post to any good students who might be interested;

For best consideration, apply by December 1, 2022; for application details see here:

My department website is here; my personal website is here

Background:

My traditional research interests include sexual selection, mate choice, ovulatory cycles, mental fitness indicators (creativity, humor, art, music, moral virtues), individual differences (intelligence, personality traits, mental disorders, behavior genetics), and applied evolutionary psychology (consumer behavior, evolutionary medicine, politics). My newer research interests include evolutionary psychology applied to Effective Altruism, longtermism, existential risks, and Artificial Intelligence safety.

My 10 previous PhD students have worked on a wide variety of topics, including disgust, humor, facial attractiveness, musical rhythm, genetic admixture, architecture as costly signaling, intelligence among hunter-gatherers, and behavioral manipulation by sexually transmitted pathogens.

Our PhD program at University of New Mexico is based in Albuquerque, USA, which offers plentiful sunshine, a low cost of living, outdoor activities, and a relaxed lifestyle. Apart from evolutionary psychology, the 27 faculty in our psychology department have strengths in brain imaging, addictions research, health psychology, evidence-based clinical psychology, and quantitative methods. UNM also has a very strong evolutionary anthropology program including 9 faculty, and I have co-advised 5 previous anthropology PhD students. Our program offers 5 years of support, including tuition, health insurance, and a graduate assistantship (stipend) of about $16k/year; there may be EA funding for graduate studies that could pay significantly more than that.