Fleischman was born in São Paulo, Brazil and raised both Jewish and Catholic.[3][4] Her father's family is of German-Jewish descent.[5] She grew up in the Southern United States and was not taught about evolution in the public school system there. She was passionate about evolution from an early age, earning the nickname "monkey girl" from classmates at age 12.[4]
Since her postdoc at UNC Chapel Hill,[2][6] Fleischman has been a lecturer in the department of psychology at the University of Portsmouth from 2011 to 2020; she is currently on sabbatical.[7] One of her more covered findings in the press is that disgust inhibits sexual arousal in women.[8][9] In addition to academic publications and lectures, she also gives public lectures and writes articles for the layperson.[10][11][12] She argues that eating beef is more ethical than eating chicken because it kills fewer animals per gram of meat.[13]
In August 2020, she started a blog at Psychology Today called How to Train Your Boyfriend, having the same title as a book she is writing.[14]
Fleischman is the host of the Aporia Magazine podcast.[15]
In 2021, Fleischman co-authored the commentary Can ‘eugenics’ be defended? which argued scientific debate around genetic enhancement was polarized and concluded "just as enhancement isn’t a unified category that we can simply judge as morally good or bad, so too with genetic enhancement or eugenics".[16] Fleischman wrote an essay in 2023 titled You're Probably a Eugenicist arguing that Dor Yeshorim goal of reducing the rate of Tay-Sachs disease and cystic fibrosis in Jewish families could be described as Eugenicist and that "Gay men and lesbian women in the US often use gamete donors from egg and sperm banks to have kids in a process that is transparently eugenic ... Organisations that recruit egg and sperm donors don’t just recruit for fertility, they also screen for mental and physical health, height, education and criminal history – because that’s what their clients want and expect."[2][17]
Political views
Fleischman has been described as "pronatalist",[18] and attended the Natal Conference in 2023 where she spoke at length about how people with mental illness are statistically likely to marry other mentally ill people and pass those genes along to their children, suggesting some children are biologically better than others.[19]Politico states the conference attendees were largely members of the New Right and described Fleischman as arguing that genetics are destiny.[19] She has been quoted as saying: "I encourage people who are responsible and smart and conscientious to have children, because they’re going to make the future better."[20]
Personal life
Fleischman is a member of Giving What We Can, a community of people who have pledged to donate 10% of their income to the world's most effective charitable organisations.[21]
Fleischman (right) with Geoffrey Miller in 2019
On November 29, 2019, she married fellow American evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller.[22][23] The couple had earlier appeared together in an interview advocating for polyamory.[24] They have two children together, one born in spring 2022,[25][26] and another born in summer 2023.[27]
Publications
Confer, Jaime C.; Easton, Judith A.; Fleischman, Diana S.; Goetz, Cari D.; Lewis, David M. G.; Perilloux, Carin; Buss, David M. (2010). "Evolutionary psychology: Controversies, questions, prospects, and limitations". American Psychologist. 65 (2): 110–126. CiteSeerX10.1.1.601.8691. doi:10.1037/a0018413. ISSN1935-990X. PMID20141266.
Fleischman, D. S. & Fessler, D. M (January 2011). "Progesterone's effects on the psychology of disease avoidance: Support for the compensatory behavioral prophylaxis hypothesis". Hormones and Behavior. 59 (2): 271–275. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.11.014. ISSN0018-506X. PMID21134378. S2CID27607102.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
