Jose Yong

Jose’s eclectic experiences as a wandering, accidental academic are reflected in his research where anything pertaining to the human condition, including mating, individual differences, culture, game theory, motivation, wellbeing, and organizational behavior, is fair game. Jose utilizes evolutionary or functionalist perspectives to guide his investigations, and he has published in outlets such as American Psychologist, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Culture and Evolution, and Archives of Sexual Behavior. Jose is also interested in the therapeutic and meaning-making utility of art and music, and he has been invited to share his insights on radio shows, podcasts, and conferences on issues pertaining to romantic relationships, mental health, life hacking, and more. When he isn’t buried deep in his research pursuits, Jose can be found pursuing his loves for DJing, electronic music, whiskey, football, and travel.

Jose’s current focus primarily revolves around understanding modern problems, including competitive stress, physical and mental health issues, ultralow fertility, risky behavior, cynicism, and extremism, through an evolutionary mismatch lens. Jose is also broadly interested in psychosocial "desiderata", or the desired things that underlie a happy, healthy, and good life. Within this area, Jose is interested in so-called "deviant" but healthy subpopulations (e.g., sexual kinks, alternative mating systems, rave/psychedelic culture) and their insights for human functioning and wellbeing. Jose also enjoys questions that border on the philosophical, such as the fundamental nature of humans, what the "purpose" of life (or anything) might be (if there is even such a thing), what reality is and how it is perceived (e.g., simulacra effects), the affordances and limits of external reality as extensions of the mind and phenotypes, and questions at the intersection of consciousness and physics (i.e., the hard problem/explanatory gap).

Recent highlights:

·         Modern society reduces fertility, but less so for wealthier people

·         Are video games bad for wellbeing? It depends

·         Do matrilinies like the Mosuo disprove evolutionary mate preference theories? Not quite

·         Humans evolved to be coherent rather than correct storytellers

·         People who do not comply with Covid-19 guidelines are basically free riders

·         Lockdowns make more intelligent folks less happy 

 See more at www.joseyong.com.