Response to Commentaries: Life History Evolution, Causal Mechanisms, and Female Sexual Orientation

Luoto, Severi; Krams, Indriķis; Rantala, Markus J.

doi:10.1007/s10508-019-1439-0

Cited by 18 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…Exposure to androgens has an effect on neuronal survival and connections (Kret and De Gelder, 2012) and can play an important role in the sex-specific development of the endocannabinoid system, which directs reward-related behavior (Struik et al, 2018;Luoto et al, 2019b) and which may therefore partially underlie the psychological sex differences reported above (Luoto et al, 2019a). Testosterone, for instance, has both organizational and activational effects on risk aversion and choosing risky careers in finance (Sapienza et al, 2009; see also .…”

Section: Proximate Mechanisms and Ontogenymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic Leadership: Sex Differences and Their Evolutionary–Developmental Origins

Luoto

Varella

2021

Front. Psychol.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global societal, economic, and social upheaval unseen in living memory. There have been substantial cross-national differences in the kinds of policies implemented by political decision-makers to prevent the spread of the virus, to test the population, and to manage infected patients. Among other factors, these policies vary with politicians’ sex: early findings indicate that, on average, female leaders seem more focused on minimizing direct human suffering caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while male leaders implement riskier short-term decisions, possibly aiming to minimize economic disruptions. These sex differences are consistent with broader findings in psychology, reflecting women’s stronger empathy, higher pathogen disgust, health concern, care-taking orientation, and dislike for the suffering of other people—as well as men’s higher risk-taking, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and focus on financial indicators of success and status. This review article contextualizes sex differences in pandemic leadership in an evolutionary framework. Evolution by natural selection is the only known process in nature that organizes organisms into higher degrees of functional order, or counteracts the unavoidable disorder that would otherwise ensue, and is therefore essential for explaining the origins of human sex differences. Differential sexual selection and parental investment between males and females, together with the sexual differentiation of the mammalian brain, drive sex differences in cognition and behavioral dispositions, underlying men’s and women’s leadership styles and decision-making during a global pandemic. According to the sexually dimorphic leadership specialization hypothesis, general psychobehavioral sex differences have been exapted during human evolution to create sexually dimorphic leadership styles. They may be facultatively co-opted by societies and/or followers when facing different kinds of ecological and/or sociopolitical threats, such as disease outbreaks or intergroup aggression. Early evidence indicates that against the invisible viral foe that can bring nations to their knees, the strategic circumspection of empathic feminine health “worriers” may bring more effective and humanitarian outcomes than the devil-may-care incaution of masculine risk-taking “warriors”.

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Section: Proximate Mechanisms and Ontogenymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic Leadership: Sex Differences and Their Evolutionary–Developmental Origins

Luoto

Varella

2021

Front. Psychol.

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“…1B in De Dreu & van Dijk 2018). Cold demands may be a more significant factor in predicting global patterns of innovation and economic development (Luoto 2019a; 2019b) rather than explaining the specific tide of events that led to the Industrial Revolution.…”

Section: Different Kinds Of Environmental Harshness Impose Unique Influences On Innovation Life Histories and Industrializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite its shortcomings, there is much to commend in Baumard's model. Understanding the various pre- and postnatal factors that affect the calibration of life history strategies (Luoto et al 2019a; 2019b) and the importance of the “pooled energy budget” that was accomplished through English exploitation of other nations’ natural and human resources will make Baumard's life history model biologically more compelling and historically more accurate.…”

Section: Different Kinds Of Environmental Harshness Impose Unique Influences On Innovation Life Histories and Industrializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

England first, America second: The ecological predictors of life history and innovation

Luoto

Rantala²,

Krams

2019

Behav Brain Sci

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We present data from 122 nations showing that Baumard's argument on the ecological predictors of life history strategies and innovation is incomplete. Our analyses indicate that wealth, parasite stress, and cold climate impose orthogonal effects on life histories, innovation, and industrialization. Baumard also overlooks the historical exploitation of other nations which significantly enlarged the “pooled energy budget” available to England.

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“…It could therefore be predicted that more masculine heterosexual women (Bártová et al, 2020), i.e., women with higher prenatal androgen exposure or higher current testosterone levels (Luoto et al, 2019a, b) – and, thus, a higher drive for social status (cf. Nave et al, 2018) – have a higher likelihood of developing AN.…”

Section: Risk Factors For Eating Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, digit ratio (2D:4D, i.e., a biomarker of prenatal androgen exposure: Luoto et al, 2019a) is more masculine in AN patients than in BN patients, with controls having an intermediate digit ratio (Quinton et al, 2011). This suggests that AN patients might have experienced higher prenatal androgen exposure than BN patients and controls (for a detailed discussion of these developmental mechanisms in non-clinical populations, see Luoto et al, 2019a, b). In women, low prenatal testosterone levels and high pubertal ovarian hormone levels seem to increase risk of BED; in men, high prenatal testosterone levels seem to protect against BED (Klump et al, 2017).…”

Section: Risk Factors For Eating Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eating Disorders: An Evolutionary Psychoneuroimmunological Approach

et al. 2019

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Eating disorders are evolutionarily novel conditions. They lead to some of the highest mortality rates of all psychiatric disorders. Several evolutionary hypotheses have been proposed for eating disorders, but only the intrasexual competition hypothesis is extensively supported by evidence. We present the mismatch hypothesis as a necessary extension to the current theoretical framework of eating disorders. This hypothesis explains the evolutionarily novel adaptive metaproblem that has arisen when mating motives conflict with the large-scale and easy availability of hyper-rewarding but obesogenic foods. This situation is exacerbated particularly in those contemporary environments that are characterized by sedentary lifestyles, ever-present junk foods, caloric surplus and the ubiquity of social comparisons that take place via social media. Our psychoneuroimmunological model connects ultimate-level causation with proximate mechanisms by showing how the adaptive metaproblem between mating motives and food rewards leads to chronic stress and, further, to disordered eating. Chronic stress causes neuroinflammation, which increases susceptibility to OCD-like behaviors that typically co-occur with eating disorders. Chronic stress upregulates the serotonergic system and causes dysphoric mood in anorexia nervosa patients. Dieting, however, reduces serotonin levels and dysphoric mood, leading to a vicious serotonergic-homeostatic stress/starvation cycle whereby cortisol and neuroinflammation increase through stringent dieting. Our psychoneuroimmunological model indicates that between-individual and within-individual variation in eating disorders partially arises from (co)variation in gut microbiota and stress responsivity, which influence neuroinflammation and the serotonergic system. We review the advances that have been made in recent years in understanding how to best treat eating disorders, outlining directions for future clinical research. Current evidence indicates that eating disorder treatments should aim to reduce the chronic stress, neuroinflammation, stress responsivity and gut dysbiosis that fuel the disorders. Connecting ultimate causes with proximate mechanisms and treating biopsychosocial causes rather than manifest symptoms is expected to bring more effective and sophisticated long-term interventions for the millions of people who suffer from eating disorders.

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Response to Commentaries: Life History Evolution, Causal Mechanisms, and Female Sexual Orientation

Cited by 18 publications

References 97 publications

Pandemic Leadership: Sex Differences and Their Evolutionary–Developmental Origins

Pandemic Leadership: Sex Differences and Their Evolutionary–Developmental Origins

England first, America second: The ecological predictors of life history and innovation

Eating Disorders: An Evolutionary Psychoneuroimmunological Approach

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