TY - JOUR
T1 - Cross-country relationships between life expectancy, intertemporal choice and age at first birth
AU - Bulley, Adam
AU - Pepper, Gillian V.
PY - 2017/9
Y1 - 2017/9
N2 - Humans, like other animals, typically discount the value of delayed rewards relative to those available in the present. From an evolutionary perspective, prioritising immediate rewards is a predictable response to high local mortality rates, as is an acceleration of reproductive scheduling. In a sample of 46 countries, we explored the cross-country relationships between average life expectancy, intertemporal choice, and women's age at first birth. We find that, across countries, lower life expectancy is associated with both a smaller percentage of people willing to wait for a larger but delayed reward, as well as a younger age at first birth. These results, which hold when controlling for region and economic pressure (GDP-per capita), dovetail with findings at the individual level to suggest that life expectancy is an important ecological predictor of both intertemporal and reproductive decision-making.
AB - Humans, like other animals, typically discount the value of delayed rewards relative to those available in the present. From an evolutionary perspective, prioritising immediate rewards is a predictable response to high local mortality rates, as is an acceleration of reproductive scheduling. In a sample of 46 countries, we explored the cross-country relationships between average life expectancy, intertemporal choice, and women's age at first birth. We find that, across countries, lower life expectancy is associated with both a smaller percentage of people willing to wait for a larger but delayed reward, as well as a younger age at first birth. These results, which hold when controlling for region and economic pressure (GDP-per capita), dovetail with findings at the individual level to suggest that life expectancy is an important ecological predictor of both intertemporal and reproductive decision-making.
KW - Age at first birth
KW - Delay discounting
KW - Evolution
KW - Human behavioral ecology
KW - Intertemporal choice
KW - Mortality
U2 - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.05.002
DO - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.05.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85019487881
VL - 38
SP - 652
EP - 658
JO - Evolution and Human Behavior
JF - Evolution and Human Behavior
SN - 1090-5138
IS - 5
ER -