Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

6-2023

Abstract

Modern low fertility is an unresolved paradox. Despite the tremendous financial growth and stability in modern societies, birth rates are steadily dropping. Almost half of the world's population lives in countries with below-replacement fertility and is projected for a continued decline. Drawing on life history theory and an evolutionary mismatch perspective, we propose that desire for social status (which is increasingly experienced by individuals in industrialized, modern societies) is a key factor affecting critical reproductive preferences. Across two experimental studies (total N = 719), we show that activating a desire for status can lead people to prefer reproductive tradeoffs that favor having fewer children, thereby predicting preferences for delaying both marriage and having a first child. These data support an evolutionary life history mismatch perspective and suggest a complementary explanation for declining fertility rates in contemporary societies, especially developed and economically advanced ones.

Keywords

Evolutionary psychology, Life history theory, Evolutionary mismatch, Social status, Low fertility

Discipline

Applied Behavior Analysis | Family, Life Course, and Society | Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology

Volume

4

First Page

1

Last Page

11

ISSN

2666-6227

Identifier

10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100125

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100125

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