In the 1940’s, a British biologist called Angus Bateman carried out a series of experiments, looking at mating behaviour and reproductive success in fruit flies, that came to be foundational for Evolutionary Psychology claims about evolved psychological differences between women and men. This talk – the presentation of a draft chapter for a forthcoming popular book – will discuss some of the empirical challenges to Bateman’s principle of universally competitive males and choosy females, and consider the implications for familiar accounts of human sex differences.

Cordelia Fine is an ARC Future Fellow at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, and Associate Professor at the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne. Cordelia studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, followed by an MPhil in Criminology at Cambridge University. She was awarded a PhD in Psychology from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. Between 2002 to 2011 she held research positions at the School of Philosophy & Bioethics at Monash University, the Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics at Australian National University, and at the Centre for Agency, Values & Ethics at Macquarie University. Cordelia Fine is also the author of two popular science books and numerous popular articles, including publications in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Monthly and New Statesman.

Evolution, Ecology and Genetics Seminar Series in the Reasearch School of Biology, ANU