Joe Berta : Valentine’s Day Interview
Joe Berta is a beloved member of the teaching staff here at CU. He works in the psychology department and anyone who has ever had a class with him knows that Joe Berta isn’t only a great teacher, he is an awesome person! We love Joe; his sense of humor, the stories about his cats and his love life, his prairie dog impressions, Jimmy Hendrix impersonations, hearing about his latest youtube discovery, his hatred for clickers (and the Cleveland Browns), and everything in between.
For Valentine’s Day this year, Joe is our go to source for advice, psychology research on dating, and true love.
How long have you been teaching at CU?
“Twenty years.”
What is your favorite part about teaching?
“The Lectures, everything else is kind of a pain in the ass, the clickers are like a life and death struggle.”
What classes do you teach on campus?
“General Psychology, Biopsychology, Cognitive Psychology, and Behavioral Genetics.”
Which class is your favorite to teach?
“It’s hard to believe because everybody hates teaching it, but General Psychology. “
Why do you think people make such a big deal about Valentine’s Day?
“Hm. I suppose it’s that you’re able to publicly affirm that you like the person. It’s also a way that you can show somebody how much you like them because it’s socially acceptable, whereas if you acted like you do on Valentine’s Day any other day people might think you’re nuts.”
Have you recently heard of any interesting psychology research being conducted about love or dating?
“Oh there’s all sorts of really interesting research. They’ll have research on stuff about how you will usually meet the person that you’re going to marry in school or in work, and what that amounts to is that you meet people who are similar to you in those environments. There’s also a thing that goes on called the mere-exposure effect, where you like stuff because it’s familiar to you, as long as it doesn’t harm you. They also have this thing when you first meet someone that you experience called passionate love, which is when you’re all hot and bothered. Then when people get married they call it compassionate love where what happens is the passion is still there, but it’s different from what it used to be. Like what you see on tv, when they say she’s not only my wife she’s my best friend. What that amounts to is knowing you have somebody who’s gonna have your back, that’s why if a spouse betrays the other spouse it’s like the worst thing that can happen. It would be like your dog turning on you, that’s also probably why people like dogs so much because your dog won’t cheat on you. They’ve also studied online dating and they found something unexpected, that the relationships and friendships that people develop online are just as strong as the ones made in real life. There was another study where they had people who signed up for online dating meet in person, and the women lied about their weight and the men lied about their height. You’ve probably heard about that, people lying online, why would you even do that!?”
Do you believe in love at first sight?
“I believe in infatuation at first sight but not love at first sight.”
Do you believe in true love or a happily ever after?
“I’ve seen it, yes, I wanted to say no, but there’s an elderly couple in my neighborhood and they are ninety years old. They go out walking every day together and I stop and talk to them a lot. I’ll tell ya they still respect and love each other and it’s really something to see.”
How do you plan on spending Valentine’s Day this year?
“My skirt chasing days have been over for several years, i’ll probably watch a ballgame.”
Do you have a celebrity crush?
“Well if I did you probably wouldn’t even know them, there was some that I liked, like Gina Lollobrigida, and Joey Heatherton, I can’t think of any other ones. Celebrities have changed a lot over the years, now you can know everything about a celebrity and they didn’t have it like that in the old days.”
What’s your most memorable Valentine’s Day to date?
“I’d say it was always with my ex-girlfriend, we’d go out to dinner and that, but she is a really interesting woman and going to dinner with her anytime was a lot of fun.”
What’s your favorite rom-com?
“Um yeah, so you want comedy? These are old movies you’ve never heard of but His Girl Friday, and for just a romance movie, another one you’ve never heard of from the 1950’s, Marty. I recommend it, it’s about an ugly man dating an ugly woman, only she’s good looking to me, but at the end it’s really a good movie.”
Do you have any love advice you’d like to offer CU students this valentine’s day?
“Oh, boy let me think about this one, I mean I can think of cynical things.
I’ll make it simple, two words, use protection.”
We concluded our interview by talking about what a classy lady Adele is for breaking her grammy award in half and making Beyonce cry, Joe made a quick comment about the infamous Kanye incident in 2009, and then he let us snap a photo of him for his article, which we decided to make pink, sorry Joe ;)
Thanks for a great interview Joe, everyone here at Her Campus loves you!!
If you see Joe on campus make sure you let him know how much you loved his Valentine’s Day article!