School of Psychology - Directory - People - Dr Brendan Zietsch
2006-2009 - PhD (The genetic etiology of human sexuality)
2000-2003 - B Psych Sc (Hons I)
Articles for The Conversation
My research activities focus on combining evolutionary and genetic approaches to human behaviour. This involves experiments, twin studies, and statistical genetics. Broadly, I want to know what evolutionary processes gave rise to the various characteristics of our extraordinary species, and why there are wide, heritable individual differences in these characteristics despite selective pressures favouring only the most advantageous genetic variants.
I'm particularly interested in mate preferences and choices, physical/behavioural/brain masculinity-femininity, physical attractiveness (face and body), intelligence, personality, and sexual behaviour and orientation.
Current PhD students under my primary supervision are James Sherlock, Jo-Maree Ceccato, and Liza van Eijk. Dr Anthony Lee is a former student with whom I still collaborate. I work closely with Prof Bill von Hippel's research group here at UQ, as well as the Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer.
PDFs below are for personal use only.
Italics denotes students under my primary supervision.
† Authors contributed equally
50. Barlow, F. K., Sherlock, J. M., & Zietsch, B. P. (in press). Is prejudice heritable? Evidence from twin studies. Eds. Sibley, C. G. & Barlow, F. K. Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Prejudice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
49. Lee, A. J., Mitchem, D. G., Wright, M. J., Martin, N. G., Keller, M. C., & Zietsch, B. P. (2016). Facial averageness and genetic quality: Testing heritability, genetic correlation with attractiveness, and the paternal age effect. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37, 61-66. [IF: 3.1] PDF
48. Zietsch, B. P. (2016). Individual differences as the output of evolved calibration mechanisms: Does the theory make sense in light of empirical observations? Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 71-75. (invited review).
47. Lee, A. J., Brooks, R. C., Potter, K. J., & Zietsch, B. P. (2015) Pathogen disgust sensitivity and resource scarcity are associated with mate preference for different waist-to-hip ratios, shoulder-to-hip ratios, and body mass index. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 480-488. [IF: 3.1] PDF
46. Sherlock, J. M., Zietsch, B.P., Tybur, J. M., Jern, P. J. (2015). The quantitative genetics of disgust sensitivity. Emotion, 16, 43-51. [IF: 3.4]
45. Zietsch, B. P., Lee, A. J., Sherlock, J. M., Jern, P. (2015). Variation in women’s facial masculinity preference is better explained by genetic differences than by previously identified context-dependent effects. Psychological Science, 28, 1440-1448. [IF: 4.9] PDF
44. Hansell, N. K., ... Zietsch, B. P. , . . . Wright, M. J. (2015). Genetic basis of a cognitive complexity metric. PLos One, 10(4), e0123886. [IF: 3.2] PDF
43. Haysom, H. J., Mitchem, D. G., Lee, A. J., Wright, M. J., Martin, N. G., Keller, M. C., & Zietsch, B. P. (2015). A test of the facultative calibration/reactive heritability model of extraversion. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 414-419. [IF: 3.1] PDF
42. Mosing, M. A.†, Verweij, K. J. H.†, Madison, G., Pedersen, N. L., Zietsch, B. P., & Ullen, F. (2015). Did sexual selection shape human music? Testing predictions from the sexual selection hypothesis of music evolution using a large genetically informative sample of over 10,000 twins. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 359-366. [IF: 3.1] PDF
41. Lee, A. J. & Zietsch, B. P. (2015). Women's pathogen disgust predicting preference for facial masculinity may be specific to age and study design. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 249-255. [IF: 3.1] PDF
40. Mitchem, D. G., Zietsch, B. P., Wright, M. J., Martin, N. G., Hewitt, J. K., & Keller, M. C. (2015). No relationship between intelligence and facial attractiveness in a large, genetically informative sample. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 240-247. [IF: 3.1] PDF
39. Zietsch, B. P., Westberg, L., Santtila, P., & Jern, P. (2015). Genetic analysis of human extrapair mating: Heritability, between-sex correlation, and receptor genes for vasopressin and oxytocin. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 130-136. [IF: 3.1]. PDF
38. Zietsch, B. P., de Candia, T. R., & Keller, M. C. (2015). Evolutionary behavioral genetics. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 2, 73-80. PDF (invited review)
37. Haysom, H.J., Verweij, K.J.H., Zietsch, B.P., 2015. Evolutionary models of personality. In: James D. Wright (editor-in-chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol 17. Oxford: Elsevier. pp. 899–905.
36. Abdellaoui, A.†, Verweij, K. J. H.†, & Zietsch, B. P. (2014). No evidence for genetic assortative mating beyond that due to population stratification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [IF: 9.7] PDF
35.Verweij, K. J. H., Abdellaoui, A., Veijola, J., Sebert, S., Koiranen, M., Keller, M. C., Järvelin, M-R., & Zietsch, B. P. (2014). The association of genotype-based inbreeding coefficient with a range of physical and psychological human traits. PLoS One. [IF: 3.2] PDF
34.Verweij, K. J. H., Burri, A. V., & Zietsch, B. P. (2014). Testing the prediction from sexual selection of a positive genetic correlation between human mate preferences and corresponding traits. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35, 497-501. [IF: 3.1] PDF
33. Lee, A. J., Dubbs, S. L. von Hippel, W. Brooks, R. C. & Zietsch, B. P. (2014). A multivariate approach to human mate preferences. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35, 193-203. [IF: 3.1] PDF
32. Zietsch, B. P., Kuja-Halkola, R., Walum, H. & Verweij, K. J. H. (2014) Perfect genetic correlation between number of offspring and grandoffspring in an industrialized human population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,111, 1032-1036. [IF: 9.7] PDF
31. Lee, A. J., Mitchem, D. G., Wright, M. J., Martin, N. G., Keller, M. C., & Zietsch, B. P. (2014) Genetic factors increasing male facial masculinity decrease facial attractiveness of female relatives. Psychological Science, 25, 476-484. (IF: 4.9) PDF
30. Mitchem, D. G., Purkey, A. M., Grebe, N. M., Carey, G., Garver-Apgar, C. E., Bates, T. C., Arden, R., Hewitt, J. K., Medland, S. E., Martin, N. G., Zietsch, B. P. & Keller, M. C. (2013). Estimating the sex-specific effects of genes on facial attractiveness and sexual dimorphism. Behavior Genetics, 44, 270-281. (IF: 3.2) PDF
16. Verweij, K. J. H., Zietsch, B. P., Liu, J. Z., Medland, S. E., Lynskey, M. T., Madden, P. A. F., Agrawal, A., Montgomery, G. W., Heath, A. C. & Martin, N. G. (2012). No association of candidate genes with cannabis use in a large sample of Australian twin families. Addiction Biology, 17, 687-690.(IF: 5.4) PDF
15. Powell, J. E.† & Zietsch, B. P.† (2011). Predicting sensation seeking from dopamine genes: Use and misuse of genetic prediction. Psychological Science, 22, 413-415. (IF: 4.9) PDF
---- Below are pre-PhD papers as a research assistant in neuroanatomy ---
IF = ISI Impact Factor (2014)
Evolutionary psychology - mate preferences and choices, mate value, physical attractiveness, intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, masculinity-femininity, sexual behaviour, and how these relate to sexual selection and the evolution of the human mind.
