Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951-1967

Kolk, Martin; Barclay, Kieron J.

doi:10.4054/mpidr-wp-2020-010

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…For women, a higher social status was associated with a decreased likelihood of having children. Combined with previous studies showing that the social status-fertility relationship is primarily driven by the high risk of childlessness among lower social status men (Kolk and Barclay 2021), the current results suggest that social status, in terms of income and standardized education level, positively contributes to men's but not women's reproduction. This is done through mating success and a better chance at transitioning to parenthood instead of having more offspring in an industrialized societal setting.…”

Section: Effects Of Social Status On Mating and Reproductive Successsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Fieder and Huber (2007) found that income was positively associated with reproductive success for men, mainly because they could reduce the risk of childlessness; after excluding men who had no children, the positive association between social status and reproductive success for men became non-significant. Similar relationships between social status and bachelorhood, as well as childlessness, were found in contemporary Sweden (Kolk and Barclay 2021). Hu (2020) found that the positive relationship between men's social status and the number of offspring in historical China became non-significant after controlling for the number of marriages.…”

Section: Social Status Influences Mating and Reproductive Successmentioning

confidence: 71%

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Social status predicts different mating and reproductive success for men and women in China: evidence from the 2010–2017 CGSS data

Zhang

Santtila

2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Evolutionary psychological theories posit that higher social status is conducive to men’s reproductive success. Extant research from historical records, small scale societies, as well as industrialized societies, support this hypothesis. However, the relationship between status difference between spouses and reproductive success has been investigated less. Moreover, even fewer studies have directly compared the effect of status and status difference between spouses on reproductive success in men and women. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) conducted between 2010 and 2017 (N = 55,875; 28,931 women) and operationalizing social status as standardized income and educational level (compared with same-sex peers), we examined how social status and relative status between spouses impact men’s and women’s mating and reproductive success. We found that (1) men with higher social status were more likely to have long-term mating (being in a marriage and/or not going through marriage disruption) and reproductive success, mainly through having a lower risk of childlessness; (2) women with higher social status were less likely to have mating and reproductive success; and (3) relative status between spouses had an impact on the couple’s reproductive success so that couples, where the husband had higher status compared to the wife, had higher reproductive success. Thus, social status positively impacted men’s reproductive success, but relative status between spouses also affected mating and impacted childbearing decisions. Significance statement In terms of standardized educational level and income among peers, social status positively predicts men’s mating and reproductive success in contemporary China. However, while a higher social status increases the probability of having at least one child, it does not predict a greater number of children for men. A status difference between spouses, on the other hand, consistently predicts having children. Thus, the higher the husband’s status relative to his wife, the greater the likelihood of having the first, second, and third children. The current results suggest that when examining the effect of status on mating and reproduction, social status and status within a family should be considered. We also stress the importance of exploring the potential proximate mechanisms by which a status difference influences childbearing decisions.

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Section: Effects Of Social Status On Mating and Reproductive Successsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Social Status Influences Mating and Reproductive Successmentioning

confidence: 71%

Social status predicts different mating and reproductive success for men and women in China: evidence from the 2010–2017 CGSS data

Zhang

Santtila

2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…While it is quite plausible to hypothesize that cognitive abilities evolved as an adaptation, there is an ongoing debate whether intelligence is adaptive in contemporary humans, due to a mismatch between adaptations and environment. This debate is reflected in empirical data as well: both negative (Reeve et al, 2013;Shatz, 2008) and positive (Kolk & Barclay, 2021; associations were detected between the phenotypic scores of intellectual performance and fitness. Hence, examining the current evolution of intelligence remains an intriguing and exciting task.…”

Section: The Case Of Behavioral Traits-personality and Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why human behavioral ecology needs behavioral genetics: The problem of phenotypic gambit.

Međedović¹

2024

Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences

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The phenotypic gambit is one of the crucial assumptions in evolutionary behavioral ecology: it asserts that a phenotypic variation of a trait represents a reasonably adequate estimation of its genetic variation. This is particularly important since one of the main goals of behavioral ecology is to analyze the patterns of natural selection on phenotypic traits-the phenotypic gambit allows only the measurement of phenotypic variance of a trait, without exploring its genetic variance. The phenotypic gambit is crucially dependent on heritability itself-if there are systematic factors that decrease heritability, there is elevated chance for phenotypic gambit to fail. We argue that there is at least one ecological condition, harsh environment, which is related to markedly lower heritability of life history and behavioral traits in humans. Hence, the measurement of phenotypic variance of a trait may generate invalid results, at least for participants who originated from harsh environmental conditions. As a solution we propose the integration of behavioral ecological and behavioral genetic research designs: this integrative design allows researchers to partition the genetic and environmental variances of an examined trait and to obtain genetic correlations between the trait and fitness proxies. Furthermore, it enables that ecological conditions can be analyzed as a moderator in this link. Due to the strengths of integrated design, we believe that this research approach may be highly fruitful for the future studies in evolutionary human sciences. Public Significance StatementEmpirical research of behavioral evolution is often conducted only on phenotypes; however, evolutionary processes are unfolding on a genetic level. Observed phenotypic data may not hold on a genetic level, especially in certain ecological conditions. Therefore, we propose closer collaboration between human (evolutionary) behavioral ecology and behavioral genetics and emphasize that this cooperation would benefit and advance both research fields.

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“…A later study found a positive correlation between an index of ejaculate quality and facial attractiveness ratings (of the same Spanish men) provided by a different sample of men and women (Soler et al, 2014). Other research reports positive associations of intelligence with ejaculate quality (Arden, Gottfredson, Miller, & Pierce, 2009), male fertility (Kolk & Barclay, 2020), overall physical health (Arden, Gottfredson, & Miller, 2009), and height (Silventoinen et al, 2006; Sundet et al, 2005), suggesting that intelligence correlates with an overall fitness factor. However, not all research shows these positive correlations between phenotype quality and ejaculate quality.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

No Evidence for a Relationship between Intelligence and Ejaculate Quality

et al. 2020

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Genetic quality may be expressed through many traits simultaneously, and this would suggest a phenotype-wide fitness factor. In humans, intelligence has been positively associated with several potential indicators of genetic quality, including ejaculate quality. We conducted a conceptual replication of one such study by investigating the relationship between intelligence (assessed by the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices Test–Short Form) and ejaculate quality (indexed by sperm count, sperm concentration, and sperm motility) in a sample of 41 men (ages ranging 18 to 33 years; M = 23.33; SD = 3.60). By self-report, participants had not had a vasectomy, and had never sought infertility treatment. We controlled for several covariates known to affect ejaculate quality (e.g., abstinence duration before providing an ejaculate) and found no statistically significant relationship between intelligence and ejaculate quality; our findings, therefore, do not match those of Arden, Gottfredson, Miller et al. or those of previous studies. We discuss limitations of this study and the general research area and highlight the need for future research in this area, especially the need for larger data sets to address questions around phenotypic quality and ejaculate quality.

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Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951-1967

Abstract: Working papers of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research receive only limited review. Views or opinions expressed in working papers are attributable to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute.

Cited by 3 publications

References 18 publications

Social status predicts different mating and reproductive success for men and women in China: evidence from the 2010–2017 CGSS data

Social status predicts different mating and reproductive success for men and women in China: evidence from the 2010–2017 CGSS data

Why human behavioral ecology needs behavioral genetics: The problem of phenotypic gambit.

No Evidence for a Relationship between Intelligence and Ejaculate Quality

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