Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk

Ellis, Bruce J.; Figueredo, Aurelio José; Brumbach, Barbara H.; Schlomer, Gabriel L.

doi:10.1007/s12110-009-9063-7

Cited by 1,210 publications

(1,058 citation statements)

References 259 publications

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“…These findings have important implications for the conceptualization of race stereotypes, as well as for reducing the application of pernicious stereotypes to individuals. whereas unpredictability refers to unpredictable variation in environmental conditions (15). Here, we label environments that are both harsh and unpredictable as desperate ecologies, and ecologies that are resource-sufficient and stable as hopeful ecologies.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The pattern of an organism's tradeoffs reflects its life history strategy. Life history strategies represent integrated, interdependent traits and behaviors, broadly placed along a continuum from fast to slow (15). In general, fast life history strategies are exemplified by lower investment in embodied capital, earlier sexual maturation and reproduction, higher numbers of offspring, and lower parental investment; slow life history strategies are exemplified by higher investment in embodied capital, later maturation and reproduction, lower numbers of offspring, and higher parental investment (14).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Ecology-driven stereotypes override race stereotypes

Williams

Sng

Neuberg

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Why do race stereotypes take the forms they do? Life history theory posits that features of the ecology shape individuals' behavior. Harsh and unpredictable ("desperate") ecologies induce fast strategy behaviors such as impulsivity, whereas resource-sufficient and predictable ("hopeful") ecologies induce slow strategy behaviors such as future focus. We suggest that individuals possess a lay understanding of ecology's influence on behavior, resulting in ecology-driven stereotypes. Importantly, because race is confounded with ecology in the United States, we propose that Americans' stereotypes about racial groups actually reflect stereotypes about these groups' presumed home ecologies. Study 1 demonstrates that individuals hold ecology stereotypes, stereotyping people from desperate ecologies as possessing faster life history strategies than people from hopeful ecologies. Studies 2-4 rule out alternative explanations for those findings. Study 5, which independently manipulates race and ecology information, demonstrates that when provided with information about a person's race (but not ecology), individuals' inferences about blacks track stereotypes of people from desperate ecologies, and individuals' inferences about whites track stereotypes of people from hopeful ecologies. However, when provided with information about both the race and ecology of others, individuals' inferences reflect the targets' ecology rather than their race: black and white targets from desperate ecologies are stereotyped as equally fast life history strategists, whereas black and white targets from hopeful ecologies are stereotyped as equally slow life history strategists. These findings suggest that the content of several predominant race stereotypes may not reflect race, per se, but rather inferences about how one's ecology influences behavior. Traits such as these have long characterized white Americans' stereotypes of black Americans (1-3). Why do race stereotypes in the United States take these particular forms?Stereotypes are useful to the extent they can rapidly provide perceivers with information about the affordances-threats and opportunities-posed by others (4). Indeed, a major function of the mind is to identify and anticipate affordances and to respond to them in ways that are threat reducing and opportunity enhancing so that we may more successfully achieve our goals (5-10). However, because we cannot directly see others' behavioral intentions, strategies, or capacities, we must infer them (imperfectly) from cues we can perceive. Here, we argue that one such cue is an individual's home ecology, because ecologies shape the behavior of those within them. Thus, by knowing another's home ecology, people possess useful information (in the form of stereotypes) about others' behavioral intentions, strategies, and capacities. To the extent that different races are associated with different home ecologies, an individual's race becomes a secondary cue to his or her ecology, with the implication that race may evoke ecology-driven stereot...

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology-driven stereotypes override race stereotypes

Williams

Sng

Neuberg

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The theory suggests individuals will seek to optimize the investment of resources, engaging in a series of trade-offs in order to allocate resources for maintenance, growth, and reproduction (Chisholm, 1993). The environment that an individual is exposed to early on, and the availability of resources while growing up, can shape an individual's behaviors throughout the lifespan (see Ellis, Figueredo, Brumbach, & Schlomer, 2009).…”

Section: Life History Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fast life history strategies are defined as faster maturation, shortened lifespan, early and unrestricted reproductive behavior, and less parental investment in offspring (Ellis et al, 2009). Generally speaking, fast life history individuals devote more time and energy to obtaining mates and having children, while investing relatively less in each child (Cabeza de Baca & Figueredo, 2014).…”

Section: Life History Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher scores on the Mini-K life history battery are associated with greater disgust sensitivity on the three domains of disgust scale

Frederick

Keil

Bassioni

et al. 2018

EMB

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Abstract. Disgust is a universal emotion that promotes protective behaviors in three distinct domains: sexual, moral, and pathogenic. There is considerable individual variation in sensitivity to disgust, and past research suggests individuals with slower life history strategies are more sensitive to stimuli that provoke pathogen and moral disgust. We hypothesized that such individuals would also be more sensitive to disgust in a sexual context. Two hundred seventyseven participants completed the Mini-K Life History Battery and the Three Domains of Disgust Scale. A slower life history strategy (as reflected by a higher Mini-K score) was associated with increased sensitivity to sexual, pathogen, and moral disgust. Removal of items with potential overlap did not affect the significance of the results. These findings suggest that the K-factor of life history is associated with increased disgust sensitivity across all three domains.

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“…Relying on anthropometric measures of maturation (rate of development of breasts and axillary hair), growth and reproduction of adolescent girls, we were able to test the predictions of predictive-adaptive hypotheses [1,2,4,12,15,16] that father's death accelerates (i) sexual maturation and (ii) reproduction. Additionally, we tested (iii) whether father's death suppresses growth of daughters in order to elucidate the importance of paternal resource provisioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Father's death does not affect growth and maturation but hinders reproduction: evidence from adolescent girls in post-war Estonia

Hõrak

Valge

2015

Biol. Lett.

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The popular concept of predictive-adaptive responses poses that girls growing up without a father present in the family mature and start reproduction earlier because the father's absence is a cue for environmental harshness and uncertainty that favours switching to a precocious life-history strategy. Most studies supporting this concept have been performed in situations where the father's absence is caused by divorce or abandonment. Using a dataset of Estonian adolescent girls who had lost their fathers over the period of World War II, we show that father's death did not affect the rate of pubertal maturation (assessed on the basis of development of breasts and axillary hair) or growth. Father's death did not affect the age of first birth but, contrary to predictions, reduced lifetime reproductive success. Our findings thus do not support the concept of predictive-adaptive responses and suggest that alternative explanations for covariation between fatherlessness and early maturation are required.

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Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk

Cited by 1,210 publications

References 259 publications

Ecology-driven stereotypes override race stereotypes

Ecology-driven stereotypes override race stereotypes

Higher scores on the Mini-K life history battery are associated with greater disgust sensitivity on the three domains of disgust scale

Father's death does not affect growth and maturation but hinders reproduction: evidence from adolescent girls in post-war Estonia

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