Research

My research aims to develop mechanistic explanations of human social cognition and personality. I use evolutionary theory to identify recurrent social problems, develop and test models of the cognitive mechanisms that help solve them, and examine how individual differences in those mechanisms relate to broader patterns of personality and behavior.

Much of my work focuses on hierarchy navigation and social influence. I study how people estimate the status consequences of actions and characteristics, what information those judgments depend on, and how emotions such as pride and shame are involved in this process. I also use these mechanistic models to better understand individual differences and broad personality dimensions, which I view as descriptive patterns in need of explanation rather than as explanations themselves. Related work examines how people infer socially relevant characteristics from others and how those judgments contribute to person perception and social evaluation.

Students interested in my working with me should check out some of the my selected publications below and fill out an application here

Representative publications are grouped (semi)thematically below. I also link to data and code repositories for each empirical project. See my CV or Google Scholar for my complete publication record.

Personality & Individual Differences

I study how variation in underlying psychological mechanisms can help explain broad patterns of personality and individual differences.

Lukaszewski, A. W., Lewis, D. M. G., Durkee, P. K., Sell, A., Sznycer, D., Buss, D. M. (2020). An adaptationist framework for personality science. European Journal of Personality.

Durkee, P. K., Lukaszewski, A. W., von Rueden, C., Gurven, M., Buss, D. M., Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2022). Niche diversity predicts personality structure across 115 nations. Psychological Science.

Durkee, P. K., Graves†, P. A., Rodriguez‡, N. R. (2026). Toward a mechanistic account of personality: A case study of competitor derogation accuracy and the Dark Triad. Evolution and Human Behavior.

Durkee, P. K. (2025). Measuring personality traits: Simulations exploring (mis)alignment between methods and measurands. Journal of Research in Personality.

Status & Hierarchy

I study the psychological mechanisms people use to navigate status hierarchies, including how people estimate, pursue, and confer social status.

Buss, D. M.*, Durkee, P. K.*, Shackelford, T. K., Schmitt, D. P., Bowdle, B. F., Brase, G. L., Choe, J. C., Trofimova, I. (2020). Human status criteria: Sex differences and similarities across 14 nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Durkee, P. K., Lukaszewski, A. W., Buss, D. M. (2020). Psychological foundations of human status allocation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Durkee, P. K., Lukaszewski, A. W., Buss, D. M. (2023). Status-impact assessment: Is accuracy linked with status motivations? Evolutionary Human Sciences.

Durkee, P. K., Buss, D. M. (2025). Hierarchy navigation: Individual differences in tactics, strategies, and traits. Human Nature.

Emotion & Social Regulation

I study how emotions such as pride and shame regulate behavior and provide information about social evaluation and status.

Durkee, P. K., Lukaszewski, A. W., Buss, D. M. (2019). Pride and shame: Key components of a culturally universal status management system. Evolution and Human Behavior.

Landers, M., Sznycer, D., Durkee, P. K. (2024). Are self-conscious emotions about the self? Testing competing theories of shame and guilt across two disparate cultures. Emotion.

Durkee, P. K. (2024). Emotions and status hierarchies. In The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions (eds. L. Al-Shawaf & T. K. Shackelford). Oxford University Press.

Person Perception & Social Evaluation

I study how people use observable cues to infer socially relevant characteristics and evaluate others.

Durkee, P. K.*, Goetz, A. T.*, Lukaszewski, A. W. (2018). Formidability assessment mechanisms: Examining their speed and automaticity. Evolution and Human Behavior.

Durkee, P. K., Ayers, J. D. (2021). Is facial width-to-height ratio reliably associated with social inferences? Evolution and Human Behavior.

Durkee, P. K. (2019). Do the Maasai perceive weak walkers to be stronger and more attractive than strong walkers? A re-analysis of Fink et al. (2019). Biology Letters.

* Shared first authorship  ·  † Undergraduate mentee  ·  ‡ Graduate mentee