Science Speaks Series: Attraction and Relationships

Paul Eastwick’s research investigates how people initiate romantic relationships and the psychological mechanisms that help romantic partners to remain committed and attached. One of his research programs examines how the qualities that people say are critically important to them in a romantic partner—their ideal partner preferences—direct romantic partner selection and retention. He is also interested in exploring how close relationship research can inform evolutionary psychological approaches (and vice versa), especially with respect to the way that relationships grow and develop over time. Additionally, his work draws from anthropological data on the time course of human evolution to make novel psychological predictions.