Journal
EVOLUTION AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Volume 41, Issue 6, Pages 536-549Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.05.004
Keywords
Balancing selection; Developmental plasticity; Ecological gambit; Fast-slow continuum; Genetics; Individual differences; Life history theory; Pace-of-life syndromes; Personality; Physiology
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The idea that individual differences in behavior and physiology can be partly understood by linking them to a fast-slow continuum of life history strategies has become popular in the evolutionary behavioral sciences. I refer to this approach as the fast-slow paradigm of individual differences. The paradigm has generated a substantial amount of research, but has also come increasingly under scrutiny for theoretical, empirical, and methodological reasons. I start by reviewing the basic empirical facts about the fast-slow continuum across species and the main theoretical accounts of its existence. I then discuss the move from the level of species and populations to that of individuals, and the theoretical and empirical complications that follow. I argue that the fast-slow continuum can be a productive heuristic for individual differences; however, the field needs to update its theoretical assumptions, rethink some methodological practices, and explore new approaches and ideas in light of the specific features of the human ecology.
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