David P. Schmitt

David P. Schmitt is a personality psychologist who founded the International Sexuality Description Project (ISDP). The ISDP is the largest-ever cross-cultural research study on sex and personality. Over 100 psychologists simultaneously administered an anonymous self-report survey to 17,837 individuals representing 56 different nations, 6 continents, 13 islands, and 30 languages. Direct assessments of people's personality traits and sexual behaviors have led to innovative tests of evolutionary psychology and social role theory. A second wave of the ISDP is currently underway and includes measures of subjective well-being, social dominance, sexual aggression, rape attitudes, HIV risk, and psychopathy.

David Schmitt also blogs in Psychology Today

Publications

 * Schmitt, D.P. (2005). Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: A 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 247–311.
 * Schmitt, D.P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., et al. (2004). Patterns and universals of adult romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions: Are models of self and of other pancultural constructs? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 367–402.
 * Schmitt, D.P., Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Angleiter, A., Ault, L., Austers, I., et al. (2004). Patterns and universals of mate poaching across 53 nations: The effects of sex, culture, and personality on romantically attracting another person's partner. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 560–584.
 * Schmitt, D., et al. (2003). Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: Tests from 52 nations, 6 continents, and 13 islands. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 85–104.
 * Schmitt, D.P, Shackelford, T.K., Duntely, J., Tooke, W., Buss, D.M., Fisher, M.L., Lavallee, M., & Vasey, P. (2002). Is there an early-30s peak in female sexual desire? Cross-sectional evidence from the United States and Canada. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 11, 1–18.