Geoffrey Miller

The Mating Mind argues that the human mind was shaped mainly by sexual selection rather than by survival pressure, so that art, humour, language and even morality are courtship display; the field remains divided over how much of that can be tested. Miller is an evolutionary psychologist at a New Mexico university. In 2013 he posted publicly that obese doctoral applicants lacked the willpower to finish a thesis; his university censured him, placed his work under supervision, and did not accept his explanation that the message was part of a research project, for which he apologised. He has gone on publishing and remains a combative presence in public argument.