Joshua M. Ackerman’s research explores the role that adaptive psychological mechanisms play in behavioral and decision-making contexts. Much of what we think about (or don’t think about), the decisions we make (or not), and the (dis)satisfaction we have with those decisions is driven by a fundamental set of evolved predispositions interacting with subtle features of our current environments. In approaching psychology from this perspective, his research has concentrated on interpersonal cognition how and why people think, prefer, choose, and act with or because of each other. This work has led to projects investigating threat identification, romantic relationships, self-control and risky decisions, and nonconscious effects of touch sensations.  Currently, he is interested in understanding how exposure to cues of contagious disease and other socioecological features of one’s environment influence social thinking and behavior.