Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology
The Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology is a multidisciplinary team of psychologists (developmental, cognitive, social and biological) and behavioural biologists.
Within the Centre, we are exploring the origins of mind and behaviour through the consideration of evolutionary processes and the comparison of humans with other animals.
View all Centre outputs, projects and funding on our research portal
Research
Our research covers the following topics:
- Human Evolutionary Psychology – including facial attractiveness; flirting; disgust sensitivity; olfaction; human facial expression; hormones and behaviour; personality; emotion; cooperation; human development
- Primate Cognition – including communication; facial expression; FACS; acoustics; friendship; comparative developmental psychology; theory of mind; emotion; laughter; cooperation; reputation formation; competition; social learning; personality and learning; joint attention; decision-making; executive functioning; spatial cognition
- Human-Animal Interaction, Conservation and Welfare – including conservation and rehabilitation of orangutans and sun bears in Borneo, elephant conservation, companion and working equid welfare; indices of positive emotion; stereotypies and maladaptive behaviour, public engagement in science, enrichment, education programs in Indonesia, animal advocacy and animal rights; animal–assisted therapy
- Domestication and Cognition – including influence of domestication on cognition; animal-human communication; theory of mind in dogs; horse social cognition and behaviour; facial expressions; secondary emotions; emotion expression and perception, cooperation; reputation formation; inequity aversion; multi-sensory perception; physiological indices of emotion; friendship
Our members

Dr Leanne Proops
- Job Title Associate Head (Research)
- Email Address leanne.proops@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health
- PhD Supervisor PhD Supervisor

Professor Bridget Waller
- Job Title Professor of Evolutionary Psychology
- Email Address Bridget.Waller@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health
- PhD Supervisor PhD Supervisor

Dr Lorenzo Stafford
- Job Title Senior Lecturer
- Email Address Lorenzo.Stafford@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health
- PhD Supervisor PhD Supervisor

Dr Marina Davila Ross
- Job Title Reader in Comparative Psychology
- Email Address marina.davila-ross@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health

Dr Juliane Kaminski
- Job Title Reader in Comparative Psychology
- Email Address Juliane.Kaminski@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health

Dr Erik Gustafsson
- Job Title Senior Lecturer
- Email Address Erik.Gustafsson@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health

Dr Sophie Milward
- Job Title Lecturer
- Email Address sophie.milward@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health
- PhD Supervisor PhD Supervisor
Dr Paul Morris
- Job Title Principal Lecturer
- Email Address Paul.Morris@port.ac.uk
- Department Department of Psychology
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health

Dr Matt Parker
- Job Title Senior Lecturer
- Email Address matthew.parker@port.ac.uk
- Department School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
- Faculty Faculty of Science and Health
- PhD Supervisor PhD Supervisor