Income Inequality and Reproductive Competition: Implications for Consumption, Status-Seeking, and Women’s Self-Sexualization

Abstract

We argue that inequality plays such an important role in shaping human behavior because of the strong effects it exerts on individual reproductive success and thus evolutionary fitness.Here we examine evidence of the relationship between economic inequality and reproductive incentives in men and women. Inequality has been shown to increase men's competition for status and respect, particularly among men who are younger and poorer. This competition is an important explanatory variable in rates of accidental death, addiction, violence, and property crime. We then focus on parallel links in women, summarizing evidence that high economic inequality increases women's investment of time and attention on competitive reproductive pursuits (such as improving physical and sexual attractiveness). We suggest that these behaviors are due to proximate desires to socially signal and socially climb, and may also reflect a concern with external approval. We show that these proximate mechanisms can be interpreted in terms of the ultimate function of achieving greater reproductive success via enhanced status, safety and material well-being in economically unequal environments.

‘You are a useful person’: Economic inequality leads people to approach others in an instrumental way

“…Thus, we infer that in a society with high inequality, women may be more likely to choose men with more material resources. The prediction is in line with the findings of a recent study that income inequality increased women's status anxiety and then fostered their intentions to wear revealing clothing to attract men with greater resources (Blake & Brooks, 2019a, 2019b).…”

Incel Activity on Social Media Linked to Local Mating Ecology

“…We predicted that high income inequality would amplify levels of incel activity. Inequality amplifies incentives to strive for economic mobility, not only for the sake of material wealth but also to achieve mating and reproductive success (Blake & Brooks, 2019;Oliveira Ramos et al, 2017;M. Wilson & Daly, 1997).…”

“…For men in particular, this dynamic has led to wealth and status becoming major determinants of success in marriage, mating, and reproduction in a wide variety of societies (Cronk, 1991;Hopcroft, 2006;Nettle & Pollet, 2008;von Rueden & Jaeggi, 2016). Large income differences among men can intensify women's incentives to partner with a high-earning man or, if only lower-earning options are available, to remain unpartnered (Bergstrom, 1996;Blake & Brooks, 2019;Blake et al, 2018). Economically unequal environments also amplify competition among men, intensifying risky status-seeking and status-protecting behaviors and thus elevating rates of violent crime and homicide (Daly, 2016;Krahn et al, 1986;Oliveira Ramos et al, 2017;M.…”

Effects of gender inequality and wealth inequality on within-sex mating competition under hypergyny

“…Moreover, at the U.S. city and county level, women's expenditure on clothing was associated positively and robustly with inequality (Blake et al 2018). Whether the effects of inequality on self-sexualisation, grooming, and other expressions of women's competition are uniform, or if they are particularly strong in some women rather than others, currently remains unresolved (Blake and Brooks 2019).…”

“…The primary aim of this paper is to predict how economic inequalities shape within-sex competition. Considerable evidence points to the importance of economic inequality within a sex on competitive behaviour (Wilson and Daly 1997, Daly 2016, Blake et al 2018, Blake and Brooks 2019. Likewise, inequalities between women and men have been shown to influence behaviours related to mating competition (Price et al 2014).…”