Marissa A Harrison

Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg · Psychology

You've heard of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. But have you heard of Amy Archer-Gilligan? Or Belle Gunness? Or Nannie Doss? Women have committed some of the most disturbing serial killings ever seen in the United States. Yet scientific inquiry, criminal profiling, and public interest have focused more on their better-known male counterparts. As a r...

You've heard of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. But have you heard of Amy Archer-Gilligan? Or Belle Gunness? Or Nannie Doss? Women have committed some of the most disturbing serial killings ever seen in the United States. Yet scientific inquiry, criminal profiling, and public interest have focused more on their better-known male counterparts. As a r...

The interface of sexual behavior and evolutionary psychology is a rapidly growing domain, rich in psychological theories and data as well as controversies and applications. With nearly eighty chapters by leading researchers from around the world, and combining theoretical and empirical perspectives, The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectiv...

The interface of sexual behavior and evolutionary psychology is a rapidly growing domain, rich in psychological theories and data as well as controversies and applications. With nearly eighty chapters by leading researchers from around the world, and combining theoretical and empirical perspectives, The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectiv...

A plethora of movies, television programs, podcasts, and online videos are dedicated to horror and terror, with fictional (e.g., zombies) and nonfictional (e.g., serial killing) themes. Morbid curiosity is a phenomenon where individuals attend to, or seek information about, horrid subjects, such as terror and death. Moreover, morbid curiosity has b...

Both poor body image and dating anxiety are associated with psychological problems. The relationship between body image and dating anxiety is especially important to study within emerging adults, as individuals in this unique developmental phase are already prone to anxiety as they encounter new challenges related to education, career, and autonomy...

Insulting comments are meant to demean a target. From the lens of evolutionary psychology, we theorized that the most used insults could be tied to evolved, sex-specific cues of mate value. We predicted that participants would ascribe as more insulting to men or to women phrases that derogate sex-specific cues of mate value. We analyzed both qualit...

Most literature on sexual fetishes focuses on maldevelopment, abnormality, and stigma. Benefits and psychosocial aspects of practicing fetishes are seldom documented. We aimed to explore the sensations, perceptions, and socioemotional experiences involved in practicing fetishes. We recruited 316 participants from various websites and social media p...

This heuristic study examined potential serial sexual homicide offenders (SSHOs), an unacknowledged offender group comprised of aspiring and probable SSHOs, and compared them to successful SSHOs. Data were collected on six aspiring SSHOs that each failed a single homicide attempt, 16 probable SSHOs that committed 17 homicides in separate events, an...

We examined sex differences in preferences for sexual variety and novelty to determine whether the Coolidge effect plays a role in human sexuality. In two experimental studies that employed different manipulations, we found converging evidence that men showed a greater preference for variety in potential short-term mates than did women. In the firs...

Objective We sought to examine perceived nervous reactions when first interacting with a particularly attractive person/potential romantic partner. From a theoretical standpoint, we cogitate on the possible adaptive nature of these reactions that appear seemingly counterproductive for future mating success. Methods We documented 280 participants’...

Research directly comparing empirical data of the behaviors and crimes of male serial killers (MSKs) versus female serial killers (FSKs) within one study is nonexistent. This study sought to make such a direct comparison. We examined sex differences in serial murder that may be byproducts of ancestral tendencies. Specifically, we proposed and teste...

This study sought to examine the self-esteem of individuals involved in a consensually non-monogamous relationship, the swinging lifestyle. Utilizing the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the self-esteem of swingers was quantified and compared to a general sample. The results reveal that swingers have higher self-esteem. However, gender differences emer...

This study examined sex differences in disclosing current, committed relationship status to potential extrapair copulation (EPC) partners. We hypothesized that women in a committed relationship would be more likely to reveal their relationship status to a potential EPC partner. When a woman reveals this information, it may appeal to a man’s evolved...

Swinging involves emotionally committed romantic partners engaging in sex with others, typically in the presence of one’s partner. Previous studies of the demographics, attitudes and behaviours of those involved in swinging are largely from the 1970s and tended to focus on obtaining information from only one member of a romantic pair. In the presen...

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll (SDRR) is a storied trilogy in popular culture. However, in scientific literature, there is little empirical evidence to determine if there is a positive relationship between these three phenomena, despite biological, psychological, and social reasons that would suggest they are connected. Via questionnaire, we asked p...

Evidence suggests that many physical, behavioral, and trait qualities can be detected solely from the sound of a person’s voice, irrespective of the semantic information conveyed through speech. This study examined whether raters could accurately assess the likelihood that a person has cheated on committed, romantic partners simply by hearing the s...

Objective: The prevalence of ALS cognitive or behavioural impairment (ci or bi) consistent with Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTLD) approachs 50%, while ∼5-10% progress to dementia. Our goal was to explore ci and bi differencs between bulbar and limb onset, as well as the neuroprotective potential of oestrogen in emerging FTLD. Methods: We applie...

We sought to replicate and expand our findings (Harrison & Bowers, 2010) that mass murders were most frequently committed by men who experienced a status threat as a catalyst to the crime. We found 263 cases (in 29 different countries) of male-perpetrated mass murders committed since 1996. Consistent with our earlier findings, 86.9% of these crimes...

Evidence suggests that those who engage in text messaging, particularly young individuals, tend to text in what many people may deem socially inappropriate or odd situations, such as while speaking face-to-face with someone else, while at work, while in the shower, or even while having sex. The present study investigates whether young texters are c...

Most studies that have focused on female serial killers (FSKs), although informative, have examined limited sample sizes. We consulted mass media reports of demographics, motives, methods, mental health, and victim characteristics of 64 FSKs who committed their crimes in the US from 1821 to 2008. Consistent with other studies, our data showed that...

In the present study we sampled 208 college students in an attempt to explore participants' understanding of the definition of and attitudes toward romance. As a concise definition of romance is virtually absent in the literature, based on our analysis of scientific and layperson construal of romance, we define it as an orientation toward a partner...

Mass murders have gained considerable media attention but are not well understood in behavioral sciences. These incidents extend beyond Western cultures, and they appear to be becoming more frequent. In an attempt to increase understanding of mass murder, we reviewed national and international press reports of mass murder incidents between 1996 and...

Evidence suggests that people can manipulate their vocal intonations to convey a host of emotional, trait, and situational images. We asked 40 participants (20 men and 20 women) to intentionally manipulate the sound of their voices in order to portray four traits: attractiveness, confidence, dominance, and intelligence to compare these samples to t...

Previous research shows that the human voice can communicate a wealth of nonsemantic information; preferences for voices can predict health, fertility, and genetic quality of the speaker, and people often use voice attractiveness, in particular, to make these assessments of others. But it is not known what we think of the attractiveness of our own...

Previous research has largely ignored examining nipple erection in nonsexual situations. We hypothesized that both women and men experience nonsexual nipple erection under emotional and somatic (nonsexual) conditions that trigger autonomic arousal and sought to document nonsexual triggers and instances of nipple erection in various contexts. As pre...

Since the deinstitutionalization movement, many researchers have suggested that psychiatric patients have moved from one type of institution to another—a process known as transinstitutionalization. This study sought to assess evidence that suggests the mentally ill from Pennsylvania psychiatric hospitals have been transinstitutionalized to penal in...

Despite an explosion in the popularity of text messaging (short message service, or SMS texting), little research has documented the prevalence of its use in various dimensions of the social landscape of young adults. We examined text messaging patterns in various social situations in a sample of college students. Unsurprisingly, participants place...

The prevalence of illness—and odor—causing bacteria on human feet may be responsible for an evolved disgust response to feet. Foot aversion was evident in a sample of 110 students, with almost all reporting that feet have a foul odor. Further, most participants perceived feet as “gross,” would mind touching someone else’s feet, and said that they w...

Abstract Chickering and Gamson’s notable summary of the best practices of undergraduate teaching includes promoting active learning, cooperation, and student–faculty contact. The present study hypothesized that online delivery of lecture prior to course meetings allows more in-class time to achieve these goals. Students in a control group received...

Chickering and Gamson's notable summary of the best practices of undergraduate teaching include promoting active learning, cooperation, and student-faculty contact. The present study hypothesized that online delivery of lecture prior to course meetings allows more in-class time to achieve these goals. Students in a control group received a traditio...

A widely held belief exists that women are more romantic and tend to fall in love faster than men. Responses from 172 college students indicated that although both men and women believe that women will fall in love and say "I love you" first in a relationship, men reported falling in love earlier and expressing it earlier than women reported. Analy...

By analyzing self-reports from sample of 91 college students from the United States who are frequent drivers, the present study examined the prevalence of text messaging (or "texting") while driving and the incidence of recklessness and consequences that accompany this behavior. Analyses revealed that 91% of participants reported having used text m...

Do the students who "need it" complete extra credit assignments? Using a large sample of students (N = 508) from several non-introductory psychology college courses, analyses revealed that those with existing higher grades are more likely to complete extra credit assignments than are those with lower grades. Further, female students were more likel...

Autogenic massacres are killings of two or more individuals in a single spree, motivated by personal problems or psychopathology (Mullen, Behavioral Sciences and the Law 2004, 22(3), 311–323). No attempts known to us have been made to explain autogenic massacres from an evolutionary psychological perspective. We sought to determine whether these ma...

Ontogenetic evidence suggests a possible link between second toe length and prenatal androgenization, and therefore it is possible that a longer second toe is related to behaviors and traits previously shown to be associated with testosterone. In an exploratory analysis of this phenomenon, respondents provided self-reports of various behaviors and...

Abstract Ontogenetic evidence suggests a possible link between second toe length and prenatal androgenization, and therefore it is possible that a longer second toe is related to behaviors and traits previously shown to be associated with testosterone. In an exploratory analysis of this phenomenon, respondents provided self-reports of various behav...

Participants in the present study completed an online questionnaire that assessed empathy for a list of animals and perceived empathic and communicative abilities--anthropomorphic attributions—of said list of animals varying in phylogenetic relatedness to humans. Results showed near-perfect relationships between perceived empathic and communicative...

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 7(3) of Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology (see record 2013-41944-007). The middle initial of author Susan M. Hughes was mistakenly omitted. The name appears correctly in this record, and a modified version of the article has been uploaded in place of the orig...

We investigated whether participants could infer a speaker's actual waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR) based solely on hearing the target's voice. After listening to a voice sample, raters were asked to estimate the speaker's body configuration by choosing from an array of line-drawn figures depicting variations in WHR and SHR...

This report describes the development, administration, and scoring of open-ended variants of GRE® Subject Test items in biology and psychology. These questions were administered in a Web-based experiment to registered examinees of the respective Subject Tests. The questions required a short answer of 1-3 sentences, and responses were automatically...

An abundance of unwanted sexual opportunities perpetrated by insensitive, physically and sexually abusive men may be a factor in the expression of homosexuality in some women. In the present study, we examined self-reports of dating histories, sexual experiences, and physical and sexual abuse among lesbians and heterosexual women. Lesbians with pri...

This study provides a descriptive account of kissing behavior in a large sample of undergraduate college students and considers kissing in the context of both short-term and long-term mating relationships. Kissing was examined as a mate assessment device, a means of promoting pair bonds, and a means of inducing sexual arousal and receptivity. A tot...

We investigated sex differences in post-copulatory mate guarding behaviors, jealous reactions to opposite- versus same-sex infidelity, and preferences for multiple concurrent sex partners. Results of a questionnaire administered to 448 college students showed that: (1) females were more likely to initiate the practice of sleeping with their partner...

Low fluctuating asymmetry (FA, a measure of deviation from bilateral symmetry) appears to be a phenotypic marker of reproductive viability and health. In the present study, we investigated whether ratings of voice attractiveness were correlated with variations in FA. Several bilateral traits were measured to calculate a FA index and independent rat...