EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 7, 2010) -- Members of an international organization that first met more than two decades ago to discuss new ideas for research on the evolution of human behavior will converge on the University of Oregon June 16 for their 22nd annual meeting.

The four-day conference of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) pulls together scientists from several fields to discuss their progress, said Lawrence S. Sugiyama, UO professor of anthropology and event organizer.

"Over the years, our members have taken the early ideas that emerged, refined and tested them, discarded some and developed and tested new ones. In the process, our members have transformed what we know about the complex psychological adaptations and behavioral strategies that evolved in humans," he said. "The degree of creativity and theoretical development and, most importantly, empirical testing of these ideas is going strong and increasingly sophisticated, as we should expect of any vibrant scientific field."

The conference, which is open to the public, begins with registration at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Erb Memorial Union (EMU), 1222 E. 13th Ave., and a reception at 6:30 p.m. Conference sessions will be held Thursday-Saturday in the EMU and the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E. 13th Ave. Registration at the door will be $250 (students, $150).

Among the 500 attendees will be psychologists, anthropologists, economists, legal scholars, political scientists, biologists, behavioral ecologists, physicians and humanities scholars. Harvard University biologist David Haig, whose interests range from maternal-fetal conflict during human pregnancy to the evolution of plant life cycles, will deliver the keynote address during the conference banquet, which begins at 7 p.m., Friday, June 18, in the EMU Ballroom. (Meals are only available to those who registered in advance.)

Participants also will hear six plenary talks by: Carl Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington; Susan Carey, psychologist, Harvard; Susan Perry, physical anthropologist, Arizona State University; Mark Pagel, biologist, University of Reading (United Kingdom); and Susan Perry, anthropologist, University of California, Los Angeles.

Another plenary session will honor Margo Wilson for her contributions to the field and to the society. Wilson, winner of the society's 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award, died last September after a long battle with lymphoma. Her research provided insight into homicide, and she was the founding editor of the society's high-profile journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

Breakout sessions Thursday-Saturday will cover such topics as morality, human cooperation, disease and sociality, the evolution of developmental systems, disease and psychological mechanisms, physical attractiveness, mating, social cognition and laughter. Some 200 papers will be presented orally, and approximately 160 posters of on-going research will be on display.

The society's 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Napoleon A. Chagnon, professor emeritus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, for his pioneering research using evolutionary theory to better understand human social organization, politics, conflict and warfare, presented in his classic ethnography Yanomamo and in his award winning ethnographic films.

HBES was founded in 1988 at the University of Michigan. The society was formed to promote the exchange of ideas and research findings using evolutionary theory, including studies of animal behavior, to better understand human nature.

"The field and society have grown from a relatively small handful of researchers in a minority of departments, to an international research community that spans a wide range of disciplines," Sugiyama said. "Particularly exciting is the merging of research on human life history from biological anthropology and psychology. Similarly exciting is the growing number of researchers testing psychological hypotheses cross-culturally, particularly in small-scale indigenous societies with cultures very different, in some ways, from our own."