Professor
Ph.D. University of Michigan
Area: Biopsychology, Social

Contact Information

Email: nesse@umich.edu
Psychology Office: 3018 East Hall
Psychology Phone: 734-764-6593

Alternate Office: 5261 ISR

Research and Teaching Interests

Appointments at UM include: Professor of Psychology; Professor of Psychiatry; Senior Research Scientist, Research Center for Group Dynamics, ISR; and Director, ISR Evolution and Human Adaptation Program.

I am interested in evolutionary psychology and Darwinian medicine with an emphasis on the evolutionary origins and functions of emotions involved in psychopathology. In particular, I study how natural selection shaped the capacity for mood and how the regulation of normal high and low mood is related to clinical depression. Other interests include: motivation and unreachable goals; virtual foraging; studies of serotonin, cortisol and testosterone; behavioral genetics of personality; and studies of the human capacity for commitment.