About Us Staff Profiles Dr Jose Yong

Dr Jose Yong

Dr Jose Yong

Dr Jose Yong

Senior Lecturer


Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Singapore Management University, 2014–2017;
  • Master of Science (MSc), Singapore Management University, 2012–2014;
  • Bachelor of Social Sciences (BSocSc), Singapore Management University, Majors: Psychology and Political Science, 2007–2011

Click here for research interest and publications

Biography

Jose's eclectic experiences as a wandering, accidental academic are reflected in his research where anything pertaining to the human condition, including mating, individual differences, culture, game theory, motivation, wellbeing, and organizational behavior, is fair game. Jose utilizes evolutionary or functionalist perspectives to guide his investigations, and he has published in outlets such as American Psychologist, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, and Archives of Sexual Behavior. Jose is also interested in the therapeutic and meaning-making utility of art and music, and he has been invited to share his insights on radio shows, podcasts, and conferences on issues pertaining to romantic relationships, mental health, life hacking, and more. When he isn’t buried deep in his research pursuits, Jose can be found pursuing his loves for DJing, electronic music, whiskey, football, running, and travel.

www.joseyong.com

Research Interests

Jose’s current focus primarily revolves around understanding modern problems, including competitive stress, physical and mental health issues, ultralow fertility, risky behavior, cynicism, and extremism, through an evolutionary mismatch lens. Jose is also broadly interested in psychosocial "desiderata", or the desired things that underlie a happy, healthy, and good life. Within this area, Jose is interested in so-called "deviant" but healthy subpopulations (e.g., sexual kinks, alternative mating systems, rave/psychedelic culture) and their insights for human functioning and wellbeing.

Another research direction is cultural differences in perceptions of social status, whereby distinct cultures (e.g., East vs West, collectivistic vs individualistic) possess different norms around acceptable routes to success which then influence their views about striving. For instance, Western cultures tend to have more informal routes to social status (e.g., creativity, dominance, popularity) which carry a higher level of flexibility and ambiguity, whereas Eastern cultures tend to favor formal routes (e.g., education, career) which are more narrow, structured, and objective. These different routes have varied implications for a variety of outcomes including personality, short-vs-long term orientation, mating, and who they view as deserving of respect.

Jose also enjoys questions that border on the philosophical, such as the fundamental nature of humans, what the "purpose" of life (or anything) might be (if there is even such a thing), what reality is and how it is perceived (e.g., simulacra effects), the affordances and limits of external reality as extensions of the mind and phenotypes, and questions at the intersection of consciousness and physics (i.e., the hard problem/explanatory gap).

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