Major tools for this research are mathematical modeling (principally game theory and genetic algorithms).

[1][2] Hurd has argued against the handicap principle view of animal communication, demonstrating the evolutionary stability of conventional (non-handicap) threat displays using game theoretical models.

[8] Hurd has classified models of fighting behaviour into those driven by: 1) fighting ability (aka resource holding potential), 2) perceived value of winning, and 3) aggressiveness and argues that if variation in the last trait -aggressiveness- exists in a biologically meaningful way, it ought to be fixed for life at an early stage of development.

[9] Many studies on both human, and non-human, animals suggest that inter-individual variation in adult aggressiveness is largely organised by prenatal exposure to androgens.

These gathered significant media attention, being reported on the BBC,[11] in The New York Times,[12] Discover Magazine,[13] Scientific American Mind,[14] National Geographic[15] and on Jay Leno.