The Evolution of Love and Who We Choose MyZA

The 9th Standard Bank/PAST Keynote Lecture will be presented by ‘love expert’ Dr Helen Fisher, at The Wits Great Hall, on Tuesday 22 October 2013 at 18:30. Dr Fisher will present her findings on the Evolution of Love and Who We Choose.

A biological anthropologist, Dr Helen Fisher is primarily concerned with the biological basis of human sexuality and mating systems – her ongoing research is concerned with why we love who we love, and what that means. Fisher’s scientifically-based study of something that affects us all day-to-day has led to many interesting insights, which she will share in her talk.

Fisher distinguishes three primary drives that evolved for mating and reproduction: the sex drive, romantic love and attachment; and discusses how these three broad brain systems interact to orchestrate human patterns of love and bonding. Using her and her colleagues’ brain scanning studies of men and women who are happily in love, rejected in love and in love long term; she discusses the basic traits of romantic love, the evolution of love-at-first-sight, the evolutionary development of serial social monogamy and clandestine adultery, and the biology of love addictions.

Fisher’s observations are based on data collected from 13 million people in 40 countries, and two functional MRI studies. She uses this information to propose a theory for the evolution of four broad biologically-based personality styles linked with the neural systems for dopamine, serotonin, testosterone and estrogen. She will discuss the evolution of mate choice—specifically why we naturally tend to fall in love with one person rather than another; and note some global trends that are shaping contemporary patterns of sexual behavior, romance and marriage.

“With this lecture, we are trying to show people that the study of our past and our origins is not just of interest to scientists and maybe to a lay public when a big fossil discovery is made; but that the field has broad relevance to each of our lives, and the society in which we live. Dr Fisher’s field of research achieves this particularly well!” explains Prof. Robert Blumenschine; PAST’s Chief Scientific, Education and Fundraising Strategist.

Helen Fisher, PhD, is a Biological Anthropologist at Rutgers University. She studies the evolution, brain systems (fMRI) and biological patterns of romantic love, mate choice, marriage, adultery and divorce, gender differences in the brain, the biology of personality, and the neuroscience of leadership and business styles. She has written five internationally best-selling books, including Why Him? Why Her?, Why We Love and Anatomy of Love. She is currently Chief Scientific Advisor to Match.com and their subsidiary, Chemistry.com, where she designed the Chemistry.com questionnaire. She lectures worldwide, including lectures The World Economic Forum (Davos), the 2012 international meeting of the G-20, the National Academy of Sciences, The Economist, TED, the United Nations, the Smithsonian Institution, the Salk Institute, Harvard Medical School, The International Monetary Fund, Bank of America, Fortune Magazine, Deloitte, Visa, and General Electric. She publishes widely in academic journals and appears regularly in national and international TV, radio and print media. She is the recipient of the American Anthropological Association’s Distinguished Service Award for her work in bringing the findings of Anthropology to scientists of other disciplines and the worldwide lay public.

Standard Bank is the exclusive sponsor and partner to PAST’s Keynote Lecture Series, which has brought the world’s leading origin scientists to South Africa. Presented in memory of world-renowned South African palaeo-anthropologist Phillip Tobias, whopassed away in June 2012, this annual lecture allows a platform for consideration of key findings that have relevance in the evolution of modern thinking. Previous speakers include Sir Richard Dawkins, Dr. Richard Leakey, Drs. Tim White and Berhane Asfaw (co-discoverers of famous ‘Ardi’ skeleton of Ethiopia – White is with the University of California and Asfaw is one of Africa’s leading origin scientists, a member of the U.S. Science Academy and a Trustee of PAST), and Dr. Don Johanson (discoverer of the famous Lucy skeleton from Ethiopia).

PAST, the Palaeontological Scientific Trust, also helps bring a knowledge of palaeontology in particular, and science in general, to school children from previously disadvantaged backgrounds through its acclaimed “Walking Tall” Educational Theatre Project; and programmes designed to improve instruction in evolution and genetics, and, more fundamentally, to help teachers expose learners to science in a manner that makes it relevant to their lives.

“In addition to the education and research that we facilitate at PAST, we’re always conscious of the social messages of the origins sciences – the fact that we all have common origins in Africa; that we are 99.9% genetically similar to one another; and the environmental links between evolution and the environment, which consider past environmental change, extinctions, and the effect of modern human activity upon our surroundings.” elaborates CEO Andrea Leenen.

The 9th Standard Bank-PAST Phillip Tobias Memorial Lecture will be presented by Dr Helen Fisher, at The Wits Great Hall, on Tuesday 22 October 2013 at 18:30. She will discuss The Evolution of Love and Who We Choose. Entrance is free and no booking is necessary.