Fast Life History Strategy Research Articles

Sex difference in the relationship between environmental unpredictability and depressive symptom in Chinese adolescents: The chain mediating role of sense of control and fast life history strategies.

Adolescents are at a high risk of depressive symptom. A substantial body of literature indicates that early environmental unpredictability (EU) significantly affects the likelihood of developing depressive symptom. However, only a few studies have focused on the mediating mechanisms underlying this relationship. Based on life history (LH) theory and the adaptive calibration model, this study constructed a chain-mediating model to examine whether the association between EU and depressive symptom among Chinese adolescents is mediated by sense of control and fast life history strategies. In total, 1838 Chinese adolescents (47.8% women, mean age=13.17±0.99years) participated in this study and responded to self-report measures of EU, fast LH strategies, sense of control, and depressive symptom. (1) There were significant correlations between EU, sense of control, fast LH strategies, and depressive symptom. (2) After controlling for the effects of sex, age and socioeconomic status, EU still had a significant positive effect on depressive symptom. (3) Adolescent depressive symptom was partly influenced by EU through three different pathways: the mediating role of sense of control, the mediating role of fast LH strategies, and the chain-mediating role of both sense of control and fast LH strategies. (4) There are significant gender differences in the above chain mediation models. The analysis is cross-sectional, which limits causal inference. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of risk factors for adolescent depressive symptom. The chain-mediating effect of a sense of control and fast LH strategies plays an important role in the occurrence of depressive symptom.

Attachment security, environmental adversity, and fast life history behavioral profiles in human adolescents.

One species-general life history (LH) principle posits that challenging childhood environments are coupled with a fast or faster LH strategy and associated behaviors, while secure and stable childhood environments foster behaviors conducive to a slow or slower LH strategy. This coupling between environments and LH strategies is based on the assumption that individuals' internal traits and states are independent of their external surroundings. In reality, individuals respond to external environmental conditions in alignment with their intrinsic vitality, encompassing both physical and mental states. The present study investigated attachment as an internal mental state, examining its role in mediating and moderating the association between external environmental adversity and fast LH strategies. A sample of 1169 adolescents (51% girls) from 9 countries was tracked over 10 years, starting from age 8. The results confirm both mediation and moderation and, for moderation, secure attachment nullified and insecure attachment maintained the environment-LH coupling. These findings suggest that attachment could act as an internal regulator, disrupting the contingent coupling between environmental adversity and a faster pace of life, consequently decelerating human LH.

Life is so Short, Future is so Long: The Relationship between Life History Strategies and People’s Metaphorical Perspectives on Time

Accruing evidence has attested to the plasticity of people’s metaphorical perspectives on the movement of events in time, which oscillate between the ego-moving perspective and the time-moving perspective contingent on, among others, perception of distance to the future by virtue of individual differences in lifestyle and personality. Building on and extending this avenue of inquiry, the current research investigated the relationship between life history strategy, another time-related construct, and the preferred perspective in the resolution of a temporally ambiguous question. Studies based on self-report (Study 1) and behavioral (Study 2) measures showed consistent results, such that individuals with a fast life history strategy and those who preferred the smaller-sooner reward tended to adopt the ego-moving perspective, whereas individuals with a slow life history strategy and those who preferred the larger-later reward tended to adopt the time-moving perspective. Examination of the priming effect of temporal perspectives on intertemporal decision-making revealed that differential perceptions of temporal distance underlay the strategy-time relationship (Study 3). Taken as a whole, the current findings suggested that individual differences in life history strategy may also influence people’s preferred perspective in the interpretation of ambiguous language related to time.

The interactive effect between economic uncertainty and life history strategy on corrupt intentions: a life history theory approach.

Why do some people show more corruption when facing uncertain environment? The present study aimed to give a plausible answer from an evolutionary perspective: this might be rooted in people's different life history strategies (slow vs. fast). The present study measured the participants' corrupt intentions by a hypothetical scenario and primed the feeling of economic environmental uncertainty by requiring the participants to read economic uncertainty (vs. neutral) materials. It is revealed that the participants with fast life history strategies had stronger corrupt intentions after reading materials about economic uncertainty than reading neutral materials. In addition, the desire for power mediated the interactive effect between life history strategy and economic uncertainty on corrupt intentions for fast life history strategists. This finding was discussed for its theoretical and practical implications from the perspective of life history theory.

Money or health? The effect of pathogen avoidance motives and life history strategies on health‐economic trade‐offs during the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic has caused governments and individuals to face important but difficult trade‐offs between health and the economy. How do individuals choose between health and economic outcomes during the pandemic? Based on the behavioural immune system (BIS) theory and the life history (LH) theory, the present study examined the effects of individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity and life history strategy on people's health‐economic trade‐offs during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Results of an online study (N = 300) showed that people with higher pathogen disgust sensitivity felt less sense of control during the pandemic, and therefore chose health‐related options over economic‐related options. In addition, the association between pathogen disgust sensitivity and health outcome preference only existed in people with relatively faster life history strategies. Further, people's health‐economic trade‐offs were not influenced by their current economic status. Findings have important implications for policymakers and the public to understand people's health‐economic choices during the pandemic.

Aging and growth outside the comfort zone: the case of alien fire-bellied toads in France

Understanding why some small populations succeed while others fail to establish in novel environments has major implications in applied fields such as in situ species conservation and reintroductions. Species introductions outside their native range provide excellent opportunities to address such topic, since invasions usually start with small populations. We studied the life-history strategy of a population of the fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina) introduced in France, outside the natural range of the species, to estimate its population demographic potential. The introduced population showed a fast life history strategy, with early sexual maturation at 2 years of age, a relatively short life-span (3.1 years in females and 2.3 in males, with a maximum age of 5 years), and survival rates similar to those of populations from its native range. The population presents the characteristics for becoming invasive and might pose a threat to the native yellow-bellied toad (B. variegata) populations nearby through hybridization, competition and as potential vector of pathogens and parasites. Its spread should be closely monitored and additional introductions avoided to limit its potential negative impact.

Life History Strategies of Male Criminal Offenders: Verifying Traditional Life History Patterns.

Life history (LH) strategies are results of trade-offs that species must make due to inhabiting certain ecological niches. Although it is assumed that, through the process of developmental plasticity, similar trade-offs are made by individuals in response to a certain level of harshness and unpredictability of their local environments, the study results on this matter are not consistent. In LH-oriented psychological research, such inconsistencies are often explained as a consequence of significant individual differences in phenotypical quality and owned resources, which make studying trade-offs difficult due to different costs and benefits of the same behaviors taken by different individuals. To verify if traditional LH patterns can be found among individuals with more comparable qualities, than in the general population, the current study was conducted on a group of male criminal offenders, who are typically associated with a fast LH strategy. Our results did not show any support for either LH trade-offs or unidimensional character of LH strategies in the criminal group studied. The traditional biodemographic LH traits, that we used to assess a LH strategy, merged into three well-known LH dimensions (mating, parenting, and somatic effort) that yet turned out to be entirely independent from each other. Moreover, each LH dimension turned out to be uniquely related to a different aspect of the developmental environment. The implications of the obtained results are discussed.

COVID-19's influence on life history strategy: Insights from cross-temporal meta-analysis and experimental research

Life history theory assumes that people in harsh environments tend to choose a fast life history strategy and prefer present benefits. Although many studies have provided supporting evidence, few have provided causal inferences. The COVID-19 offered an opportunity to settle this problem. This study explores the causal relationship between COVID-19 and life history strategy on macro and experimental levels. Study 1 used the COVID-19 epidemic as a natural experimental situation to conduct a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 42 studies (a total of 21,858 participants), which all utilized the Mini-k scale to measure life history strategy in China before and during the epidemic. It was found that individual exhibited lower life history strategy scale scores during the COVID-19 pandemic than before, suggesting a shift towards faster life history strategies following the outbreak of COVID-19. Study 2 employed an experimental study by manipulating participants' COVID-19 risk perception to provide more rigorous evidence. One hundred eighty-nine participants were recruited, and 92 were assigned to the experimental group. We found that people primed with higher COVID-19 risk had faster life history strategies, prioritizing immediate gains over future benefits. The two studies provide macro and experimental evidence for the causal link between COVID-19 and life history strategies.

COVID-19 risk perception and negative emotional symptoms: Mediating role of self-control and moderating role of life history strategy.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a significant public health crisis, posing threats to physical health and mental well-being. This study, grounded in the Risk-Resilience Model, sought to elucidate how COVID-19 risk perception impacts negative emotional symptoms. Specifically, we examined the mediating role of self-control and the moderating role of life history strategies. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal survey in October 2020 (N = 334) and November 2020 (N = 249), targeting residents across 14 provinces (24 cities) in China. After controlling for sex and age, the results supported the moderated mediation model, illustrating that (1) self-control mediated the relationship between COVID-19 risk perception and negative emotional symptoms, (2) life history strategy moderated the first segment of the mediation process, and (3) life history strategies also moderated the mediating effect of self-control on the link between COVID-19 risk perception and negative emotional symptoms. Furthermore, compared to a fast life history strategy, a slow life history strategy mitigated the effect of COVID-19 risk perception on self-control, thereby reducing negative emotional symptoms. This study sheds light on how COVID-19 risk perception affects negative emotional symptoms and identifies potential targets (i.e., self-control and life history strategy) for addressing emotional distress during pandemics.

Different adverse childhood experiences and adolescents' altruism: The mediating role of life history strategy.

The present study sought to investigate whether the relationship between childhood trauma, childhood socioeconomic (SES), and adolescents' altruism were mediated by their life history strategies and different adverse childhood experiences may function diversely on altruism, with two waves of data collected 6 months apart in a longitudinal design among Chinese adolescents. A total of 658 adolescents (Mage = 13.51, SD = 0.73 at T1) were recruited and completed the online survey; their life history strategies were measured by the Mini-K, the Delayed of Gratification Questionnaire (DOG), and the Chinese version of the Adolescent Risk-Taking Questionnaire (ARQ-RB) together, and their altruism was collected again after six months. After controlling for gender and their altruism at T1, the results showed that childhood trauma (i.e., emotional maltreatment, physical maltreatment), as well as low SES and fast life history strategy, were significantly negatively correlated with adolescents' altruism at T2. Importantly, life history strategy at T1 mediated the relationship between T1 emotional maltreatment, T1 low SES, and adolescents' altruism at T2. However, the effect of physical maltreatment on altruism was not mediated by life history strategy. This study indicated that emotional maltreatment and low SES can affect adolescents' altruism by influencing the formation of adolescents' life history strategies. The findings revealed the different influences of adverse childhood experiences on adolescents' altruism, which supplied new empirical evidence for the life history theory and provided certain reference values for cultivating adolescents' altruism.

Childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability negatively predict eHealth literacy through fast life-history strategy.

eHealth literacy-the ability to obtain, understand, evaluate, and use health information from the Internet-is important to maintaining and improving personal health. Prior research found that people differ notably in the levels of eHealth literacy, and this study tests a theoretical account of some of those individual differences. Drawing on life history theory, we propose that low eHealth literacy is partly the outcome of people adopting a resource-allocation strategy emphasizing early and fast reproduction, namely, a fast life-history strategy. We conducted a cross-sectional survey study (N = 1,036) that measured Chinese adult respondents' eHealth literacy, childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability, and fast life-history strategy. Covariates included health-information seeking online, self-rated health, sex, age, education level, and monthly income. Supporting a life-history explanation of eHealth literacy, childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability negatively predicted eHealth literacy through fast life-history strategy and mainly the insight-planning-control dimension of it. Harshness, not unpredictability, also directly and negatively predicted eHealth literacy after fast life-history strategy was controlled for. Our findings suggest that the psychological mechanisms associated with human life-history strategies produce at least some of the individual differences in levels of eHealth literacy, including those related to neuroticism, socioeconomic status, self-rated health and social capital. Thus, a possible way to increase future generation's eHealth literacy and thereby their health is to reduce the harshness and unpredictability of the environment in which they grow up, thereby making them more likely to adopt a relatively slow life-history in their adulthood.

Riskiness of Movement Lifestyle Varies Inversely with Adult Survival Probability among Species.

AbstractWhy do species differ in their movement lifestyles? Animals that spend more time sitting motionless and acquire food using less conspicuous movements can be more vigilant and less obvious to predators. More active animals that use food types and sites that require more conspicuous behaviors increase vulnerability to predators. Life history theory predicts that aversiveness to mortality risk evolves inversely to adult survival probability. Consequently, we postulated that long-lived species evolved inconspicuous movement lifestyles, whereas shorter-lived species use more conspicuous movement lifestyles. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying the movement lifestyles of nine tropical songbird species. Use of conspicuous movement and foraging behaviors, such as flying and hovering, was greatest in shorter-lived species and decreased with increasing adult survival probability across species. Similarly, foraging speed decreased with increasing adult survival based on a meta-analysis of 64 songbird species. Faster and conspicuous movement lifestyles of shorter-lived species likely increase food acquisition rates, which fits with faster life history strategies that include more feeding trips for young and faster growth. Similarly, slow movement lifestyles of long-lived species fit with the reduced food needs of slower life history strategies. Movement lifestyles may have evolved as an integrated component of the slow-fast life history continuum.

Being Cared for and Growing Up Slowly: Parenting Slows Human Life History

SYNOPSIS Objective. For most animals, extrinsic mortality risks drive a fast life history (LH) strategy in which animals disregard risks and accelerate reproduction. Instead of perpetuating mortality driving fast LH, humans have reduced almost all mortality risks in living environments, resulting in a significant slowing of LH. Additionally, humans exhibit invested parenting which entails teaching their young survival or mortality reduction skills. Could parenting provide an additional pathway to the development and slowing of human LH? Design. Data reported here come from interviews and questionnaires administered to a community sample of 286 rural Chinese parents and their children when the children were on average 7, 8, and 11 years old. Results. Parental acceptance statistically mediates and moderates the longitudinal association between environmental adversities and children’s LH. Conclusions. Parenting breaks the species-general contingency between mortality conditions and fast offspring LH strategies and provides an additional pathway to the development and slowing of human LH.

High Social Mobility Leads to Delayed Reproduction.

Many important family decisions, such as when to have offspring, essentially manifest different life history strategies, ranging from slow to fast ones. The current research examined how one critical societal factor, social mobility (i.e., the shift of socioeconomic status in a society), may contribute to such slow (vs. fast) life history strategies. With four multi-method studies, including archival data at the national level, a large-sample survey (N = 6787), and experimental studies (N = 497), we found that a high level of social mobility predicted and resulted in delayed reproduction. Specifically, a high level of social mobility, indexed by both objective reality and subjective perception, predicted individuals' positive future expectations. This further leads them to focus on long-term goals and foster a slow life history strategy, i.e., preferring delayed reproduction. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Lower emotional awareness is associated with greater early adversity and faster life history strategy.

Lower emotional awareness is associated with greater early adversity and faster life history strategy.

Testing the cognitive niche hypothesis with structural equation modeling: different dark traits predict an evening-chronotype in males and females

Dark triad (DT) refers to a set of antisocial and self-interested personality traits (Machiavellianism, sub-clinical psychopathy and narcissism). The nocturnal cognitive niche hypothesis suggests that the DT was advantageous in a nocturnal niche because it enables exploitative strategies and would be linked with an evening-oriented chronotype as part of a fast life history strategy. In the present self-report study (N = 300), this hypothesis was tested in a Brazilian sample. It was found that Machiavellianism was a predictor of this chronotype profile in females and secondary psychopathy was a predictor of this profile in males. Also, sex differences were replicated: on average, males exhibited “darker” personalities and more evening-oriented chronotype. Finally, these associations were tested with structural equation modeling controlling for sex and was found that the exploitative “darkcore” (psychopathy and Machiavellianism) predicts an evening-oriented chronotype. These results provide the first support for the nocturnal cognitive niche hypothesis in a non-WEIRD population.

Redheaded women are more sexually active than other women, but it is probably due to their suitors.

Women with red hair color, i.e., 1-9% of female Europeans, tend to be the subject of various stereotypes about their sexually liberated behavior. The aim of the present case-control study was to explore whether a connection between red hair color and sexual behavior really exists using data from 110 women (34% redheaded) and 93 men (22% redheaded). Redheadedness in women, correlated with various traits related to sexual life, namely with higher sexual desire as measured by Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory, with higher sexual activity and more sexual partners of the preferred gender over the past year, earlier initiation of sexual life, and higher sexual submissiveness. Structural equation modelling, however, showed that sexual desire of redheaded women mediated neither their higher sexual activity nor their higher number of sexual partners. These results indirectly indicate that the apparently more liberated sexual behavior in redheaded women could be the consequence of potential mates' frequent attempts to have sex with them. Our results contradicted the three other tested models, specifically the models based on the assumption of different physiology, faster life history strategy, and altered self-perception of redheaded women induced by stereotypes about them. Naturally, the present study cannot say anything about the validity of other potential models that were not subjects of testing.

Living fast and driving fast. Life history strategies, personality, and aggressive driving

In this research, we proposed Life history theory as an underlying framework that should explain the link between personality and driving aggression. We hypothesized that agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and the Dark Triad traits would mediate the relationship between fast life history strategies and aggressive driving. We relied on 448 participants (Mage = 31.75, SD = 12.08, 66.5 % women) that completed measures of life history strategies, Big Five factors, the Dark Triad traits, and driving aggression. We found that individuals high in fast life history strategies were also high in driving aggression. Those high in neuroticism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy were aggressive behind the wheel and those high in agreeableness and conscientiousness were low in driving aggression. Psychopathy mediated the relationship between fast life history strategies and driving aggression. This may be explained by the fact that personality traits are broad behavioral adaptations that reflect life history strategies. In other words, life history strategies do not properly exist on their own on the behavioral level. They express behaviorally in terms of stable, cross-situational personality traits.

Life-history genotype explains variation in migration activity in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).

One of the most well-known life-history continuums is the fast-slow axis, where 'fast' individuals mature earlier than 'slow' individuals. 'Fast' individuals are predicted to be more active than 'slow' individuals because high activity is required to maintain a fast life-history strategy. Recent meta-analyses revealed mixed evidence for such integration. Here, we test whether known life-history genotypes differ in activity expression by using Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) as a model. In salmon, variation in Vgll3, a transcription cofactor, explains approximately 40% of variation in maturation timing. We predicted that the allele related to early maturation (vgll3*E) would be associated with higher activity. We used an automated surveillance system to follow approximately 1900 juveniles including both migrants and non-migrants (i.e. smolt and parr fish, respectively) in semi-natural conditions over 31 days (approx. 580 000 activity measurements). In migrants, but not in non-migrants, vgll3 explained variation in activity according to our prediction in a sex-dependent manner. Specifically, in females the vgll3*E allele was related to increasing activity, whereas in males the vgll3*L allele (later maturation allele) was related to increasing activity. These sex-dependent effects might be a mechanism maintaining within-population genetic life-history variation.

Is fast life history strategy associated with poorer self-regulation and higher vulnerability to behavioral addictions? A cross-sectional study on smartphone addiction and gaming disorder

Is fast life history strategy associated with poorer self-regulation and higher vulnerability to behavioral addictions? A cross-sectional study on smartphone addiction and gaming disorder