Diana Santos Fleischman (born April 22, 1981) is an American evolutionary psychologist. Her field of research includes the study of disgust, human sexuality, eugenics, and hormones and behaviour.[1][2] She is also involved in the natalism, effective altruism, animal welfare, and feminism[3] movements.
Diana Fleischman | |
|---|---|
 Fleischman interviewed on Rebel Wisdom in 2019 | |
| Born | April 22, 1981 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Psychologist, lecturer |
| Spouse | Geoffrey Miller (2019–present) |
| Children | 2 |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Oglethorpe University |
| Alma mater | University of Texas at Austin |
| Academic advisors | David Buss |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | |
Early life and education
editFleischman was born in São Paulo, Brazil and raised both Jewish and Catholic.[3][4] Her father's family is of German-Jewish descent.[5] She grew up in the Southern United States and was not taught about evolution in the public school system there. She was passionate about evolution from an early age, earning the nickname "monkey girl" from classmates at age 12.[4]
Her undergraduate degree is from Oglethorpe University[2][6] and she also spent a year at the London School of Economics as an undergraduate. She was awarded her PhD in 2009 from the University of Texas at Austin, where her advisor was David Buss, and went on to do a postdoc at UNC Chapel Hill.[2][6]
Career
editSince her postdoc at UNC Chapel Hill,[2][6] Fleischman has been a lecturer in the department of psychology at the University of Portsmouth from 2011 to 2020; she is currently on sabbatical.[7] One of her more covered findings in the press is that disgust inhibits sexual arousal in women.[8][9] In addition to academic publications and lectures, she also gives public lectures and writes articles for the layperson.[10][11][12] She argues that eating beef is more ethical than eating chicken because it kills fewer animals per gram of meat.[13]
In August 2020, she started a blog at Psychology Today called How to Train Your Boyfriend, having the same title as a book she is writing.[14]
Fleischman is the host of the Aporia Magazine podcast.[15]
In 2021, Fleischman co-authored the commentary Can ‘eugenics’ be defended? which argued scientific debate around genetic enhancement was polarized and concluded "just as enhancement isn’t a unified category that we can simply judge as morally good or bad, so too with genetic enhancement or eugenics".[16] Fleischman wrote an essay in 2023 titled You're Probably a Eugenicist arguing that Dor Yeshorim goal of reducing the rate of Tay-Sachs disease and cystic fibrosis in Jewish families could be described as Eugenicist and that "Gay men and lesbian women in the US often use gamete donors from egg and sperm banks to have kids in a process that is transparently eugenic ... Organisations that recruit egg and sperm donors don’t just recruit for fertility, they also screen for mental and physical health, height, education and criminal history – because that’s what their clients want and expect."[2][17]
Political views
editFleischman has been described as "pronatalist",[18] and attended the Natal Conference in 2023 where she spoke at length about how people with mental illness are statistically likely to marry other mentally ill people and pass those genes along to their children, suggesting some children are biologically better than others.[19] Politico states the conference attendees were largely members of the New Right and described Fleischman as arguing that genetics are destiny.[19] She has been quoted as saying: "I encourage people who are responsible and smart and conscientious to have children, because they’re going to make the future better."[20]
Personal life
editFleischman is a member of Giving What We Can, a community of people who have pledged to donate 10% of their income to the world's most effective charitable organisations.[21]
On November 29, 2019, she married fellow American evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller.[22][23] The couple had earlier appeared together in an interview advocating for polyamory.[24] They have two children together, one born in spring 2022,[25][26] and another born in summer 2023.[27]
Publications
edit- Confer, Jaime C.; Easton, Judith A.; Fleischman, Diana S.; Goetz, Cari D.; Lewis, David M. G.; Perilloux, Carin; Buss, David M. (2010). "Evolutionary psychology: Controversies, questions, prospects, and limitations". American Psychologist. 65 (2): 110–126. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.601.8691. doi:10.1037/a0018413. ISSN 1935-990X. PMID 20141266.
- Fleischman, D. S. & Fessler, D. M (January 2011). "Progesterone's effects on the psychology of disease avoidance: Support for the compensatory behavioral prophylaxis hypothesis". Hormones and Behavior. 59 (2): 271–275. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.11.014. ISSN 0018-506X. PMID 21134378. S2CID 27607102.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Fleischman, Diana S.; Navarrete, C. David; Fessler, Daniel M.T. (22 April 2010). "Oral Contraceptives Suppress Ovarian Hormone Production". Psychological Science. 21 (5): 750–752. doi:10.1177/0956797610368062. ISSN 0956-7976. PMID 20483856. S2CID 9523224.
- Fleischman, Diana Santos (2014), Women's Disgust Adaptations, Evolutionary Psychology, Springer New York, pp. 277–296, doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-0314-6_15, ISBN 9781493903139
References
edit- ^ Perry, Louise. "The quiet return of eugenics". The Spectator. 15 June 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "Staff: Dr Diana Fleischman - University of Portsmouth". www2.port.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ a b "Diana S. Fleischman - Psychology's Feminist Voices". www.feministvoices.com. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
- ^ a b "25th October – Diana Fleischman – The evolution of human morality". The Hampshire Skeptics Society. 28 September 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ Woodhouse, Jamie (5 March 2021). ""We can't understand humans without recognising that we're animals" - Dr. Diana Fleischman - New Sentientist Conversation". Sentientism. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
- ^ a b c "Diane S Fleischman Curriculum Vitae" (PDF).
- ^ Fleischman, Diana Santos. "Home - Diana S. Fleischman". Archived from the original on 22 February 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ^ University of Portsmouth. "Disgust dampens women's sexual arousal more than fear". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ Dolan, Eric (13 December 2017). "Sexual arousal in women doesn't overcome disgust, study finds". PsyPost. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ Fleischman, Diana. "Media". www.dianafleischman.com. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ Fleischman, Diana (17 May 2018). "Universal morality is obscured by evolved morality – The Evolution Institute". evolution-institute.org. Archived from the original on 21 October 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ Fleichman, Diana (15 February 2018), The Darwin Day Lecture 2018: The evolution of human morality, retrieved 21 October 2018
- ^ Humphreys, Joe. "A new way of thinking about animal welfare". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ Fleischman, Diana. "How to Train Your Boyfriend". Psychology Today. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ^ Ough, Tom (2023). "Psychologist Diana Fleischman on how to train your boyfriend". Prospect Magazine. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024.
- ^ Anomaly, Jonathan (1 July 2018). "Defending eugenics". Monash Bioethics Review. 35 (1): 24–35. doi:10.1007/s40592-018-0081-2. ISSN 1836-6716. PMC 6096849. PMID 29804244.
- ^ Fleischman, Diana (7 February 2023). "You're probably a eugenicist". Dissentient. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
- ^ Dodds, Io. Meet the ‘elite’ couples breeding to save mankind. The Telegraph. 19 April 2023.
- ^ a b Valle, Gaby Del. The Far Right’s Campaign to Explode the Population. Politico. 28 April 2024.
- ^ Lamb, Matt. ‘Polyamorous’ scholar only encourages ‘smart and conscientious’ people to reproduce. The College Fix. 26 April 2023.
- ^ "Members". Retrieved 14 October 2019.
- ^ @primalpoly (29 November 2019). "Getting married today to @sentientist" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "Zola Registry". www.zola.com. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
- ^ "The Polyamorous Professors, Diana Fleischman & Geoffrey Miller". Rebel Wisdom. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ "Geoffrey @primalpoly and I had a baby! - Vivian Grace is 6 weeks old". Twitter. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
- ^ "Aversion to pets during pregnancy". ManyPets. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
- ^ "On Monday July 31st, @primalpoly and I had our second child, Stella Jet Miller. Here she is a few hours after birth and with her puzzled big sister, Vivian". Twitter. Retrieved 3 November 2024.