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Applied Behavior Analysis

Singapore Management University

Life history theory

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Going Beyond The Call Of Duty Under Conditions Of Economic Threat: Integrating Life History And Temporal Dilemma Perspectives, Nina Sirola Nov 2023

Going Beyond The Call Of Duty Under Conditions Of Economic Threat: Integrating Life History And Temporal Dilemma Perspectives, Nina Sirola

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Under conditions of economic threat, such as during economic downturns, organizations can benefit from employees’ willingness to go beyond the call of duty and engage in organization-directed citizenship behavior (OCBO). Yet, such behavior is discretionary and competes for time with employees’ other interests and priorities. I integrate life history theory with the temporal dilemma perspective on organizational citizenship behavior to propose that childhood environments sensitize individuals to prioritize different goals in response to economic threat later in life. Consistent with strategies for responding to threat that are functional in their childhood environments, employees from wealthier backgrounds respond to economic threat …


Desire For Social Status Affects Marital And Reproductive Attitudes: A Life History Mismatch Perspective, Amy J. Lim, Norman P. Li, Zoi Manesi, Steven L. Neuberg, Mark Van Vugt, Andrea L. Meltzer, Kenneth Tan Jun 2023

Desire For Social Status Affects Marital And Reproductive Attitudes: A Life History Mismatch Perspective, Amy J. Lim, Norman P. Li, Zoi Manesi, Steven L. Neuberg, Mark Van Vugt, Andrea L. Meltzer, Kenneth Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

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 …


Effects Of Economic Uncertainty And Socioeconomic Status On Reproductive Timing: A Life History Approach, Kenneth Tan, Norman P. Li, Andrea. M. Meltzer, Joel L. J. Chin, Kai Lin Lynn Tan, Amy J. Lim, Steven. L Neuberg, Mark Van Vugt Feb 2022

Effects Of Economic Uncertainty And Socioeconomic Status On Reproductive Timing: A Life History Approach, Kenneth Tan, Norman P. Li, Andrea. M. Meltzer, Joel L. J. Chin, Kai Lin Lynn Tan, Amy J. Lim, Steven. L Neuberg, Mark Van Vugt

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do some people have children earlier compared to others who delay reproduction? Drawing from an evolutionary, life history theory perspective, we posited that reproductive timing could be influenced by economic uncertainty and childhood socioeconomic status (SES). For individuals lower in childhood SES, economic uncertainty influenced the desire to reproduce earlier compared to individuals higher in childhood SES. Furthermore, the decision regarding reproductive timing was influenced by tradeoffs between earlier reproduction or furthering one's education or career. Overall, economic uncertainty appears to shift individuals into different life history strategies as a function of childhood SES, suggesting how ecological factors and …


Quantity Versus Quality Of Offspring, Nadhilla Velda Melia, Norman P. Li Jun 2018

Quantity Versus Quality Of Offspring, Nadhilla Velda Melia, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Organisms continually face trade-offs for how to allocate limited energy and resources. One of the key trade-offs involves the quantity versus the quality of offspring. On the one hand, if organisms invest heavily in their offspring to better their developmental and survival outcomes, they tend to only have enough resources to produce a small number of “high-quality” offspring. On the other hand, if organisms make little parental investment per child, they can produce a large number of “low-quality” offspring – although each child has a lower chance of survival, there is a higher probability that at least some offspring will …