Journal
EVOLUTION AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Volume 33, Issue 6, Pages 628-638Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.03.003
Keywords
Fertility; Reproduction; Gender differences; Earnings; Education; Socioeconomic status; Behavioural ecology
Funding
- International Max Planck Research Network on Aging
- European Commission [QLK6-CT-2001-00360, RII-CT-2006-062193, CIT5-CT-2005-028857]
- US National Institute on Aging [U01 AG09740-13S2, P01 A0005842, P01 AG08291, P30 AG12815, Y1-AG-4553-01, OGHA 04-064, R21 AG025169]
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The association between reproductive success and income in economically developed societies remains a controversial and understudied topic. The commonly made statement that individuals with a higher income have fewer children defies evolutionary explanation. Here we present results from an analyses of the association between lifetime reproductive success (LRS) and income for modern Europeans from 13 countries. We examine the relationships among income, partner income, sex and LRS, and the role of childlessness in driving the relationships. For women, we find a negative association between LAS and income, while for men, we find a flat or slightly positive one. The sex difference in the association appears to be driven by income's sex-specific association with childlessness; men with a low income have a relatively high risk of childlessness, while women with a low income have a low risk of childlessness. Consequently, once childless people are excluded from the analysis, LRS is negatively associated with income for both sexes. We argue that the observed LRS income associations may be an outcome of evolved behavioural predispositions operating in modern environments and conclude that, even though humans fail to maximise LRS at all income levels in modern settings, evolutionary theory can still help to explain sex differences in LRS. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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