Biological Anthropologist Helen Fisher to Give Questioning Passion Lecture
Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist, author and professor, will lecture on Feb. 4 at 4:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons. Her lecture is part of Washington and Lee University’s year-long Questioning Passion series.
Fisher will speak on “Lust, Romance, Attachment: The Drive to Love and Whom We Choose.” Her talk is free and open to the public.
In her talk, Fisher distinguishes three primary mating drives to explain love at first sight, casual sex and the biological and evolutionary basis of monogamy, adultery and divorce. Using her brain scanning studies of men and women in love, she discusses love addictions, rejection in love, how SSRI antidepressants can jeopardize romantic love and attachment and how to sustain romantic passion in a long-term partnership.
She is the chief scientific advisor to Match.com and chemistry.com and collects data from her questionnaire, the Fisher Temperament Inventory Test. Looking at four styles of thinking and behaving, she reveals how to recognize and influence each temperament and how individuals work, buy, innovate, follow and lead.
Fisher is a leading expert on the biology of human personality and a pioneer in examining the neurochemistry of leadership. Her research in the field of business chemistry has helped determine how biological personality styles can be used to hire, build teams and corporate boards, advertise and succeed at work.
Fisher is a research professor and member of the Center for Human Evolution Studies in the Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University. She has written five books on the evolution and future of human sexuality, monogamy, adultery and divorce, gender differences in the brain, the chemistry of romantic love, human personality types and why humans fall in love with one person rather than another.
