Moral concerns across the United States: associations with life-history variables, pathogen prevalence, urbanization, cognitive ability, and social class

Leeuwen, Florian van; Koenig, Bryan L.; Graham, Jesse; Park, Justine H.

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.06.005

Cited by 43 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…A continuum exists between "fast" and "slow" life history strategies that is explained largely by the degree of mortality (e.g., species with high mortality rates grow fast, reproduce early, and die young; see Promislow & Harvey, 1990 for a comparative study of mammals). This distinction is increasingly being applied to human phenotypic plasticity and cross-cultural variation (e.g., Hackman & Hruschka, 2013;Van Leeuwen, Koenig, Graham, & Park, 2014).…”

Section: Latitudinal Gradients In Species Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits of analogy: are religions metaphoric species, individuals, or organs?

Zeitlyn¹

2016

Religion, Brain & Behavior

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Studies of religious and other cultural groups tend to be particularistic or focus on one or more axes of variation. In this article we develop a more comprehensive approach to studying cultural diversity that emulates the study of biological diversity. We compare our cultural ecosystem approach with the axis approach, using the distinction between "tight" and "loose" cultures as an example. We show that while the axis approach is useful, the cultural ecosystem approach adds considerable value to the axis approach. We end by advocating the establishment of field sites for the study of religious and cultural diversity, comparable to biological field sites. ARTICLE HISTORYReligions and other cultural forms exist in almost endless variety, with old forms disappearing and new forms arising all the time. It is easy to use the word "evolution" to describe these changes, but past efforts to develop a comprehensive theory of cultural evolution did not become widely accepted and in retrospect can be seen to suffer from misconceptions that do not follow from evolutionary theory (such as cultural evolution as a linear progression from "savagery" to "civilization"; see Carniero, 2003 for a review). More recent research on human cultural evolution promises to succeed where past efforts have failed and enable a more rigorous comparison between religious diversity, cultural diversity, and biological diversity. A useful overview based on a recent conference is provided by Richerson and Christiensen (2013) in addition to other references cited below.Studies of religious and cultural diversity that are not based on evolution tend to be particularistic, reflecting detailed scholarship on single systems but lacking a common methodology or broader theoretical framework. When attempts at integration are made, they often take the form of identifying axes of variation, such as between strict vs. lax churches (Iannacconeeven gradients in the incidence of diseases and parasites (Fincher & Thornhill, 2012). Statistical methods such as factor analysis are sometimes employed to identify multiple axes of variation (Hofstede, 1980). These attempts at integration are more synthetic than particularistic approaches but the choice of axes (other than by factor analysis) tends to be haphazard, isolated literatures grow around the study of each axis, and different axes are seldom systematically related to each other.In this article, we will first summarize the current status of cultural evolutionary theory and evolutionary religious studies, both of which have become centered on group-level functional organization. Second, we will outline the cultural ecosystem approach to the study of religious and cultural diversity, modeled on the study of biological diversity. Third, we will discuss the axis-of-variation approach (hereafter called the axis approach), focusing on the distinction between "tight" and "loose" cultures as an extended example. We have chosen the tight/loose axis as an exemplar because it has been used mostly to study variation in trad...

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Section: Latitudinal Gradients In Species Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits of analogy: are religions metaphoric species, individuals, or organs?

Zeitlyn¹

2016

Religion, Brain & Behavior

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“…The adoption of a certain allocation—or LH strategy—which ranges from “slow” to “fast,” affects various aspects of human psychology. These include reproductive attitudes and activities (Griskevicius, Delton, Robertson, & Tybur, ; Nettle, ; Wilson & Daly, ), morality, family ties, and religiosity (Gladden, Welch, Figuéredo, & Jacobs, ; Hackman & Hruschka, ; van Leeuwen, Koenig, Graham, & Park, ), and political attitudes (Thornhill & Fincher, ; Zhang, Reid, & Xu, ). We now extend this line of work to examine how LH strategies correlate with attitudes toward government.…”

Section: The Status‐legitimacy Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A solution is to seek help from ingroup members (e.g., kin and close friends; van Leeuwen et al, ). In ancestral and modern times, ingroup members provide health care (Thornhill & Fincher, ), help one another survive in extreme temperatures (Van de Vliert, ), offer protection from violence (Van Vugt & Park, ), and engage in cooperative breeding.…”

Section: The Status‐legitimacy Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life History and System Justification: Higher Individual Fertility and Lower Provincial Life Expectancy Correlate With Stronger Progovernment Attitudes in China

Zhang

Zhong²

2018

Political Psychology

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System justification theory posits that people sometimes legitimize current social arrangements at their own cost. Indeed, research showed that lower socioeconomic status (SES) correlates with stronger progovernment attitudes, but this correlation does not appear reliable. This research proposes a different class of correlates of progovernment attitudes drawing on life history (LH) theory. People who pursue a faster LH strategy (e.g., reproducing earlier and in larger quantities) should be more progovernment because their lower resourceaccruing potential makes them more dependent on government support (e.g., public services and social welfare) to raise a large family. Supporting this hypothesis, Chinese respondents' individual fertility positively correlated with confidence in government (Study 1) and partially mediated the negative correlation between provincial life expectancy and support of censoring government criticisms (Study 2). These findings suggest an alternative explanation to some of the correlations between SES and progovernment attitudes, provide a new mechanism of system justification, and add to the growing body of work on LH strategy and political psychology.

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“…Certain behaviors are thought to cluster together to form predictable life history strategies, and these strategies are set in response to levels of environmental harshness and uncertainty during development (Copping, Campbell, & Muncer, 2013). Other things being equal, an individual from a harsh environment will tend to display a 'fast', rather than a 'slow', life history strategy (Figueredo, Vásquez, Brumbach, & Schneider, 2004;van Leeuwen, Koenig, Graham, & Park, 2014). Such a strategy would involve investing in early and frequent reproduction, rather than delaying reproduction until substantial resources are acquired and an ideal partner is secured.…”

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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Moral concerns across the United States: associations with life-history variables, pathogen prevalence, urbanization, cognitive ability, and social class

Cited by 43 publications

References 46 publications

Limits of analogy: are religions metaphoric species, individuals, or organs?

Limits of analogy: are religions metaphoric species, individuals, or organs?

Life History and System Justification: Higher Individual Fertility and Lower Provincial Life Expectancy Correlate With Stronger Progovernment Attitudes in China

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

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