Paul Vasey

Paul Vasey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge and a member of the Editorial board of the Archives of Sexual Behavior. His research focuses on issues pertaining to sexuality and gender, as viewed from a biocognitive perspective. He has an interdisciplinary program of research, which is based in both the field (Japan & Independent Samoa) and the laboratory. His program of work is characterized by three separate, but interrelated, research streams. The first research stream focuses on understanding the evolution and mechanistic basis of female homosexual behaviour in free-ranging Japanese macaques in Arashiyama, Japan. The second research stream focuses on investigating the development, evolution and mental health of gender-atypical males (known locally as fa’afafine) in Independent Samoa. The third research stream examines evolutionarily relevant aspects of mating strategies in a Canadian sample of homosexual men and women.

Some of the broad research questions Vasey’s work addresses are: Why did homosexual behaviour evolve? How do homosexual and transgendered individuals acquire and maintain sexual partners? Do individuals choose and compete for sexual partners that confer the greatest reproductive advantage? Are individuals that engage in homosexual behaviour gender-atypical in terms of other aspects of their biology, including their brains, behaviour and cognition? Are individuals that engage in gender-atypical behaviour prone to mental illness?

Vasey’s theoretical and empirical work has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals including, American Journal of Primatology, Animal Behaviour, Annual Review of Sex Research, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Behaviour, Behavioral Brain Research, Ethology, International Journal of Comparative Psychology, International Journal of Primatology, Primates and Sex Roles.

His research has been reported on in many newspapers and magazines among them, New Scientist, Science News, the Economist, the New York Times, USA Today, and the Globe and Mail. Several television documentaries about his work have been broadcast in Canada and internationally on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and Swedish Public Television.