I completed my PhD, entitled “Individual Differences in Face Preferences”, at the University of Aberdeen under the supervision of Ben Jones in 2008. My dissertation examined a series of hormonal and psychological sources of variation in face preferences, finding associations between testosterone and sex drive/sexual motivation and preferences for sexual dimorphism, as well as an association between perceived vulnerability to disease and preferences for cues to apparent health in faces. Several of the findings from my dissertation have been published and my work was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in David Puts' Lab at Penn State University.
Academic Background
I was transferred into the PhD program after completing the requirements for a Masters of Research at the University of Aberdeen. My masters project, entitled “Perceived Vulnerability to Disease is Positively Related to the Strength of Preferences for Apparent Health in Faces”, was presented at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference in Philadelphia, USA.
I received my undergraduate degree from St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada in 2005.
In 2004, as a research assistant for Michael Houlihan, I carried out an independent study entitled “Differences in Movement Time Between Extroverts and Introverts using the Lateralized Readiness Potential as a Measure”. The results of this study were presented at the annual Atlantic Provinces Interdisciplinary Council of the Sciences Conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
In 2005, I completed an NSERC funded thesis under Michael Houlihan and Ian Fraser entitled “The Facial Feature Hierarchy as Measured by Electrophysiological and Response-Time Differences”. The results from this study were presented in July of 2005 at the 15th annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
(154 kB)J Vukovic, BC Jones, DR Feinberg, LM DeBruine, FG Smith, LLM Welling & AC Little (in press). Variation in perceptions of physical dominance and trustworthiness predicts individual differences in the effect of relationship context on women's preferences for masculine pitch in men's voices.British Journal of Psychology. [abstract»»]
(795 kB)LM DeBruine, BC Jones, JR Crawford, LLM Welling & AC Little (2010). The health of a nation predicts their mate preferences: Cross-cultural variation in women's preferences for masculinized male faces.Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 277(1692): 2405-2410. [abstract»»]
(260 kB)LLM Welling, BC Jones & LM DeBruine (2008). Sex drive is positively associated with women's preferences for sexual dimorphism in men's and women's faces.Personality and Individual Differences, 44(1): 161-170. [abstract»»]
LM DeBruine, BC Jones, JR Crawford, LLM Welling & AC Little (2010). The health of a nation predicts their mate preferences: Cross-cultural variation in women’s preferences for masculine men.European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association Conference in Wroclaw, Poland. March 2010. [abstract»»]
LLM Welling, BC Jones & LM DeBruine (2008). Sex drive is positively associated with women's preferences for sexual dimorphism in men's and women's faces.Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Kyoto University, Japan. June 2008. [abstract»»]
BC Jones, LM DeBruine, PEG Bestelmeyer, AC Little, LLM Welling & CA Conway (2006). Sex-contingent face aftereffects depend on perceptual category rather than structural encoding.Scottish Perception Group in University of Stirling, Stirling, UK. December 2006.
M Houlihan, I Fraser & LLM Welling (2005). Face Perception and Event-related Potentials.Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science Conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. July 2005. [abstract»»]
LLM Welling (2004). Differences in Movement Time Between Extroverts and Introverts using the Lateralized Readiness Potential as a Measure.Atlantic Provinces Interdisciplinary Council of the Sciences Conference in Fredricton, New Brunswick, Canada. June 2004.
FG Smith, BC Jones, AC Little, LM DeBruine, LLM Welling, J Vukovic & CA Conway (2008). Individual differences in the effect of relationship context on women's preferences for sexual dimorphism in male face shape.Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Kyoto University, Japan. June 2008. [abstract»»]
(502 kB)LLM Welling, CA Conway, LM DeBruine & BC Jones (2007). Perceived vulnerability to disease is positively related to the strength of preferences for apparent health in faces.European Human Behaviour and Evolution Conference in London School of Economics, UK. March 2007.
(609 kB)LLM Welling, CA Conway, LM DeBruine & BC Jones (2006). Perceived vulnerability to disease is positively related to the strength of preferences for apparent health in faces.Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Philadelphia, PA USA. June 2006. [abstract»»]
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