Peter L. Hurd | |
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| Alma mater | Carleton University,Simon Fraser University,Stockholm University |
| Known for | finger length anddigit ratio, social behaviour esp. in conflict |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | biology,psychology |
| Institutions | University of Texas,University of Alberta |
Peter L. Hurd is an academic specialising inbiology. He is an Associate Professor at theUniversity of Alberta within the Department of Psychology's Biocognition Unit and the University's Centre for Neuroscience. His research primarily focuses on the study of the evolution of aggressive behaviour, including investigation of aggression, communication and othersocial behaviour which takes place between animals with conflicting interests. Major tools for this research aremathematical modeling (principallygame theory andgenetic algorithms). He is also interested in how the process ofsexual differentiation produces individual differences insocial behaviour.
Some of Hurd's most cited papers deal with the evolution of mating displays, including the idea thatsexually selected traits have evolved to exploit previously existing biases in the sensory, or recognition, systems of their receivers, rather than being handicapped displays.[1][2] Hurd has argued against thehandicap principle view of animal communication, demonstrating the evolutionary stability ofconventional (non-handicap) threat displays using game theoretical models.[3][4][5] Adding empirical support to this theoretical work, Hurd has also argued that threat displays in birds[6] and headbob displays in the lizardAnolis carolinensis[7] are conventional signals, rather than handicaps. Hurd attributes the preponderance of handicap models in biology to the use of simplesignalling games which are incapable of modelling conventional signalling.[8]
Hurd has classified models of fighting behaviour into those driven by: 1) fighting ability (akaresource holding potential), 2) perceived value of winning, and 3) aggressiveness and argues that if variation in the last trait -aggressiveness- exists in a biologically meaningful way, it ought to be fixed for life at an early stage of development.[9] Many studies on both human, and non-human, animals suggest that inter-individual variation in adult aggressiveness is largely organised byprenatal exposure to androgens.Digit ratio (2D:4D, the ratio of index to ring finger length) is a widely used as a proxy measure for prenataltestosterone exposure. Hurd demonstrated that men with more feminine typical-digit ratios showed lower aggressive tendency than males with more masculine-typical digit ratios.[10]
Hurd conducted a study ondigit ratios suggesting a positive correlation in males between aggressive tendency and the ratio of the lengths of the ring finger to his index finger. These gathered significant media attention, being reported on theBBC,[11] inThe New York Times,[12]Discover Magazine,[13]Scientific American Mind,[14]National Geographic[15] and onJay Leno.[16] Hurd has demonstrated that, while there is no difference in digit ratio between the sexes in most laboratory mice, that pups which suggested next to brothers have higher digit ratios than those whose uterine neighbours were sisters,[17][18] and that the large differences in digit ratios between populations may be explained byAllen's rule andBergmann's rule.[19]
Strongly influenced as a youth by theanarcho-punk movement and such influences asJonathan Kozol andA. S. Neill'sSummerhill School, Hurd was an enthusiastic member of a student runfree school group while unenthusiastically attendingColonel By Secondary School.[20] He then completed aBSc atCarleton University,Canada in 1990, followed by anMSc in 1993 fromSimon Fraser University. He moved toSweden to undertake aPhD atStockholm University (Awarded in 1997) before committing to an initialpostdoctoral fellowship with Mike Ryan at theUniversity of Texas. Hurd then became a lecturer at theUniversity of Texas in 2000 until 2001 when he moved to theUniversity of Alberta,Canada as an Assistant Professor. Hurd was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007.
Authority control databases: Academics |
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