Abstract
The harshness and unpredictability of early life circumstances shape life history strategies for trade-offs between the resources devoted to somatic and reproductive efforts of individuals in the developmental process. This paper uses belief in a just world as a reflection of early environmental cues to predict an individual’s life history strategies. Research has found that belief in a just world influences life history strategies through a sense of control. However, the relationship between a sense of control and a life history strategy is flawed because influencing life history strategies should be intrinsic to control strategies rather than a sense of control. A total of 408 Chinese undergraduate students completed the Personal Belief in a Just World Scale, Mini-K Scale, and Primary and Secondary Control Scale. Structural equation modeling suggested that belief in a just world can directly or indirectly influence life history strategies through primary and secondary control strategies, respectively; there was no statistical difference in the degree of influence between the two paths. These results deepen our understanding of the underlying mechanisms in the relationship between belief in a just world and life history strategies, which can be utilized to ensure a slow life history strategy among Chinese university students in the future.
Highlights
Survival and reproduction are the two major problems facing the evolution and development of life, and because of the finite nature of resources, allocating resources to maximize their utility is a major challenge for individual survival (Stearns, 1992)
Previous studies have shown that the sense of control can act as an intrinsic factor for Belief in a just world (BJW) to predict fast and slow life history strategy (LHS) (Meng et al, 2019)
We investigate the relationship between control strategies in BJW and LHS from the perspective of life-span theory of control
Summary
Survival and reproduction are the two major problems facing the evolution and development of life, and because of the finite nature of resources, allocating resources to maximize their utility is a major challenge for individual survival (Stearns, 1992). Studies have shown that BJW positively predicts individuals’ sense of control (Yu et al, 2018; Peng et al, 2019), and sense of control is a psychological driver of behaviors related to fast and slow LHS strategies (Mittal and Griskevicius, 2014; Wang et al, 2017). Related studies have shown that sense of control can play a mediating role in BJW and LHS (Meng et al, 2019) This has long been refuted by Wang et al (2017) who demonstrated that sense of control can significantly affect LHS (Mittal and Griskevicius, 2014), it is inconsistent with the mechanisms inherent in life history trade-offs. This allows them to more efficiently select, pursue, and disengage from their goals (Heckhausen et al, 2010), based on we propose in H3: The mediating effect of PC should be greater than that of SC
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
