Talk: The Science of Toxic Relationships: Exploring power, abuse and control

For the majority of us love is, in balance, a positive experience: exciting, passionate, warm and safe. But our visceral need for love means that it can also be used to coerce, to manipulate and to abuse. Indeed, what separates us from the rest of the animals is we are the only species that uses love to manipulate. In this talk evolutionary anthropologist, Dr Anna Machin, takes you on a journey through the darker sides of love.

Join us as we explore jealousy, uncover the link between dark triad personalities and abuse, and examine the impact of intimate partner violence on perceptions of love. Dr Anna will also investigate the significance of the romantic fairytale, and whether it influences our attraction to those who wish us harm. Finally, she will explain how charismatic personalities can exploit our need for love and, looking to the future, detail how we might seek to control love, and those we love, with love drugs.

Doors open at 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm – come down early to grab a bite to eat 

Dr Anna Machin is an evolutionary anthropologist, writer and broadcaster. She is world renowned for her research into the science of human love. She has written two books – The Life of Dad: The Making of the Modern Father and Why We Love: The definitive guide to our most fundamental need – and writes regularly for the Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times and New Scientist. She is the host of the Apple recommended and ARIA nominated podcast How We’re Wired and the tri-weekly science podcast Why? (launching October 2023). She appears regularly on both national and international television and was seen most recently on Planet Sex (BBC) with Cara Delevingne.