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The evolutionary function of love is to create a strong bond between the partners with reproduction in view. In order to achieve this goal, humans use various sexual/reproductive strategies, which have evolved due to specific reproductive benefits. The use of particular strategies depends on many factors but one of the most important is early childhood experiences, on which life history theory (LHT) focuses. John Lee (1973) identified 6 basic love styles: eros, ludus, storge, pragma, agape, and mania. Our goal was to check whether love styles may be treated as sexual/reproductive strategies in the context of LHT - slow or fast strategy. In our study (N = 177) we found that people who prefer the slow reproductive strategy are inclined to show passionate, pragmatic and friendly love, and those who prefer the fast strategy, treated love as a game. A low level of environmental stress in childhood results in preferring eros, storge and agape love styles, belonging to the slow strategy, and a high one results in preferring ludus, which belongs to the fast strategy. People representing eros, storge or pragma styles have restricted sociosexual orientation so they prefer long-term relationships, whereas those with the ludus style are people with unrestricted orientation, preferring short-term relationships. Besides, storge, agape and pragma seem to determine preferring qualities connected with parental effort in one’s partner, mania - with mating effort, and eros - with both kinds of effort. No correlation was found between the love style and the number of children.

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Life history theory (LHT) is a mid-level theory from evolutionary biology. LHT, adapted to humans, assumes that individuals can be placed along a single continuum of LH strategies referred to as the slow-to-fast LH continuum: faster life history strategists score higher on mating effort and lower on somatic and parental effort. In the present study we examine the hypothesis that worldview and coping strategies are mediators between somatic and parental effort (SPE) and current perceived stress. 226 participants completed a set of instruments: Mini-K, the World Assumptions Scale, Brief COPE, and the Perceived Stress Scale. In order to test the hypotheses about mediators, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used. The results from the current study showed that individuals allocating their own resources to SPE experienced lower current stress, and felt positive about the benevolence and meaningfulness of the world as well as the worthiness of the self. A more complex linkage was also revealed: individuals displaying SPE endorsed stronger beliefs about self-worth, which in turn was associated with a lower tendency to use disengagement coping and which again translated into a lower level of perceived stress. Furthermore, females investing in SPE maintained a higher level of belief in the meaningfulness of the world, which translated into a higher tendency to use external support for coping.

The present study explores the links among life history, reproductive strategy, autism-spectrum quotient, and quality of life. Our 235 participants (167 women and 68 men, aged 19-54) filled four instruments: Life History Survey (LHSurv), MINI-K, Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). A cluster analysis was carried out in which the respondents' answers to particular LHSurv items were used as variables in the clustering process. The next step in the analysis was to compare the delineated clusters with regard to three variables which were not included in cluster formation: the reproductive strategy (general Mini-K score), intensity of autistic traits (total AQ score) and life satisfaction level (general SWLS score). It was found that clusters formed on the basis of LHSurv results differ also in MINI-K, AQ and SWLS scores. The results show a link between such variables as reproductive strategy, autistic traits and quality of life. It seems that individuals who are raised with more financial and emotional support (including physical touch, from both parents and grandparents) end up with a slower life-history strategy, and more satisfied with their lives. These links are also reflected by individual life history, as revealed by the LHSurv instrument.