Research Goals

• To understand how the environment affects gene expression and how htat is translated to the phenotype
• To understand how variation in the density of males and females affects individual mating strategies
• To understand how our evolutionary history can explain gender differences in video game preferences and use

Research in Detail

My research generally explores the innate differences between males and females and how the environment, both social and ecological, modifies these differences. I’m interested in how individuals maximize fitness in what seems to be a chaotic and unpredictable world. Often, this require individuals to use information available during development to best make developmental decisions across suites of traits to best succeed in a future environment.

I use crickets to explore how the ecological and social environment affects juvenile developmental decisions, and the affect this has on the adult phenotype. Much of this research also explores how these early environments affect changes and gene expression, and how this translates to morphological, behavioural, and physiological differences at maturity.

My research with spiders explores how ecological environments affect the density of males and females, and the different strategies males and females use to overcome these limitations. These studies are performed in the field and also using large scale laboratory manipulations.

I have also started collaborating with Tom Denson in Psychology in an exciting new direction where we are exploring how our evolutionary history can explain gender differences in gaming preferences and habits. We perform laboratory experiments as well as online surveys to understand why we play the video games we do and what they do to us.

You can find outmore about my research on my personal website www.michaelkasumovic.com.