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Diego Guevara Beltrán

@PsychedDiego

  • Ongoing projects
  • Bio
  • Publications/preprints
  • CV/Contact information

  • Ongoing projects
  • Bio
  • Publications/preprints
  • CV/Contact information
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    • Hello! I'm Diego

      A Social Psychology PhD student at Arizona State University working in the Cooperation and Conflict Lab with Dr. Aktipis. I'm also a researcher in The Human Generosity Project, where we use principles from biology, anthropology, and psychology to understand the nature of generosity across cultures. ​

    • Ongoing research projects

      I study how and why people feel empathy for each other and how sources from the environment such as the availability of resources and predictability of challenges influence people's willingness or ability to mirror other’s emotions. I also study how feeling empathy sometimes increases our motivation to help others; and at other times, hinders our motivation to do so. My work also looks for environmental and social sources of prosociality more broadly.

       

       

       

      Empathy Motivates Willingness to Help in the Absence of Interdependence

      In this project we find that empathic concern predicts willingness to help others in spite of a lack of shared fate, and in situations where outcomes are independent between self and others.

      Does food sharing help or hinder cooperation?

      We explore situations in which sharing food leads to loses of interdependence, trust, and prosociality.

      Do challenges and mutual aid explain social class differences in empathy?

      In this project we aim to test the assumption that social class differences in affective empathy are explained by the extent to which low social class people, who absent of money, need to engage in mutual aid to solve ongoing social and financial challenges.

      Need-based vs. debt-based transfers: predictability of risks determine expectations of repayment

      Southwest American ranchers are less likely to expect repayment for lending a hand when the reason for helping is perceived to happen at unpredictable times. Here, we aim to replicate and extend these findings among a more diverse population.

    • Education

      Arizona State University

      M.A. Social Psychology, 2019

      In 2019 I graduated from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. The topic of my thesis was on the experimental effects of food sharing on cooperation.

      The University of New Mexico

      B.S. Psychology, 2015

      B.A. Evolutionary Anthropology, 2015

      In 2015 I graduated from The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM with distinctions in Psychology (Summa Cum Laude) and Anthropology (Magna Cum Laude). The topic of my undergraduate thesis was on the quasi-experimental relationship between ingroup vs. outgroup empathy and altruism.

    • Publications and preprints

      Guevara Beltran, D., Ayers, J. D., Munoz, A., Cronk, L., & Aktipis A. (2022). What is Reciprocity? A Review and Expert-based Classification of Cooperative Transfers. PsyArXiv.

       

      Guevara Beltran, D., Shiota M. N., & Aktipis, A. (forthcoming). On the proximate and ultimate functions of the social emotions with regard to cooperation. In L. Al-Shawaf & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.

       

      Ayers, J. D., Guevara Beltrán, D., Van Horn, A., Cronk, L., Todd, P. M., & Aktipis, A. (2022). Younger people and people with higher subjective SES experienced more negative effects of the pandemic on their friendships. Personality and Individual Differences, 185, 111246.

       

      Cronk, L., Guevara Beltran, D., Mercado D. R., & Aktipis A. (2021). “A solidarity-type world.” Need-based helping among ranchers in the Southwestern United States. Human Nature.

       

      Schniter, E., Macfarlan, S. J., Garcia, J. J., Ruiz-Campos, Guevara Beltran, D. G., Bowen, B. B., & Lerback, J. C. (2021). Age-Appropriate Wisdom? Human Nature, 1-36.

       

      Guevara Beltran, D., Isch, C., Ayers, J. D., Alcock, J., Cronk, L., Hurmuz-Sklias, H., Tidball, K. G., Van Horn, A., Todd, P. M., & Aktipis, A. (2021). Mask wearing behavior across routine and leisure activities during COVID-19. PsyArXiv.

       

      Isch, C., Guevara Beltran, D., Ayers, J. D., Alcock, J., Cronk, L., Hurmuz-Sklias, H., Tidball, K. G., Van Horn, A., Todd, P. M., & Aktipis, A. (2021). What predicts attitudes about mask wearing? COVID-19 prevalence, younger age, left-leaning political orientation, COVID-19 related stress, and consideration of future consequences predict positive attitudes about wearing face masks. PsyArXiv.

       

      Aktipis, A., & Guevara Beltran, D. (2020). Can some microbes promote host stress and benefit evolutionarily from this strategy?. BioEssays, 2000188.

       

      Macfarlan, S. J., Schacht, R., Schniter, E., Garcia, J. J., Guevara Beltran, D., & Lerback, J. (2020). The role of dispersal and school attendance on reproductive dynamics in small, dispersed populations: Choyeros of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Plos One, 15(10), e0239523.

       

      Ayers, J. D.*, Guevara Beltran, D.*, Alcock, J., Baciu, C., Claessens, S., Hudson, N. M., Miller, G., Tidball K., Winfrey P., Zarka, E., Todd, M. P. & Aktipis A. (2020). How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting cooperation? PsyArXiv. 

       

      Sznycer, D., Ayers, J. D., Sullivan, D., Guevara Beltran, D., van den Akker, O. R., Munoz, A., … Aktipis, A. (2020). A new measure of perceived fitness interdependence: Factor structure and validity. PsyArXiv. 

       

      Guevara Beltran, D., Isch, C., Ayers, J. D., Alcock, J., Brinkworth, J. F., Cronk, L., Hurmuz-Sklias, H., Tidball, K. G., Van Horn, A., Todd, P. M., & Aktipis, A. (2020). Mask wearing is associated with COVID-19 Prevalence, Risk, Stress, and Future Orientation. PsyArXiv.

       

      Vuletich, H. A., Andrade, F. C., Guevara Beltran, D., & Tissera, H. (2019). Social and personality psychology PhDs on the academic job market: Characteristics and outcomes: A technical report by the SPSP student committee.


      Vigil, J., DiDomenico, J., Strenth, C., Coulombe, P., Kruger, E., Mueller, A., Guevara Beltran, D., & Adams, I. (2015). Experimenter effects on pain reporting in women vary across the menstrual cycle. International Journal of Endocrinology.

       

      Vigil, J. M., Strenth, C. R., Mueller, A. A., DiDomenico, J., Guevara Beltran, D., Coulombe, P., & Smith, J. E. (2015). The curse of curves; Sex differences in the associations between body shape and pain expression. Human Nature.

      Blog Posts

      Guevara Beltrán, D., and Neil Farber (2019, August 17). Why Paying-It-Forward Is Good for You and Your Neighbor. The curious relationship between generosity and unpredictability.

       

      Guevara Beltrán, D. (2019, Feb 9). Looking for Funding, But Not Sure Where to Start? Look No Further!

       

      Guevara Beltrán, D. (2019, Feb 8). Misperceptions of Masculinity & Femininity Drive Biased Estimates of Preferences for Household Distribution of Labor

       

      Guevara Beltrán, D. (2019, Feb 7). Female Friends Who (Co)ruminate Together Stay Together

       

      Guevara Beltrán, D. (2013). Learning to Take Human Life in Times of War: A Perspective from Evolutionary Psychology. Best Student Essays Magazine, The University of New Mexico. pp. 8-13.

       

    • View CV

    Copyright 2019

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