The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think by Kenrick Douglas T. & Griskevicius Vladas

Author:Kenrick, Douglas T. & Griskevicius, Vladas [Kenrick, Douglas T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780465040971
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2013-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

FAST AND SLOW PEOPLE

Recall that some animals, like tenrecs, follow a fast life history strategy (investing very little in somatic effort and instead focusing on mating), while other animals, like elephants, follow a slow strategy (investing heavily in somatic effort and delaying reproduction). Life history theory emphasizes that neither strategy is inherently better. Instead, each is evolutionarily suited to different environments.

Fast strategies are adaptive in environments that are dangerous and unpredictable, like that of tenrecs, whose life is treacherous and uncertain. Not only must tenrecs endlessly scour for dinner in a desiccated Madagascar desert, but predators lurk behind every bush, on the lookout for a delicious tenrec dinner themselves. For critters living in a dangerous and unpredictable world, following a fast strategy is a necessity. If they delay investing in reproductive effort, they risk not reproducing at all. Tenrecs simply can’t afford to build a larger bank account, because they might not be around later to spend their savings.

Slow strategies, on the other hand, are adaptive in safer and more predictable environments. Unlike tenrecs, elephants feed on a predictable diet of regional vegetation, and their massive size and power protects them from most predators. The adaptive strategy for elephants is to take their time, grow, and learn more about their world. With the luxury of being able to pad their somatic bank account, elephants invest more in somatic effort, thereby making themselves more competitive as mates in the future and, ultimately, better parents.

But here is where things get even more interesting. Differences in life history strategies don’t just apply across different species. Individual animals within a given species also differ in their life history strategies. Some elephants and tenrecs reproduce earlier, while other elephants and tenrecs reproduce later. The same is true for humans. Although humans are relatively slow compared to other species, some people start families earlier, and others start them later. In the United States, for example, although the average age of first-time mothers is twenty-five, more than one in five first births occur to women under age twenty, while one in ten occur to women over the age of thirty-five. Some people are faster than average; others are slower. And on closer examination, these differences are not just random variations in whether or not a woman happens to become pregnant. Instead, fast and slow strategies are associated with vastly different psychologies and vastly different orientations toward everything from family to sex to money.

Slow strategists tend to be late bloomers. They actually grow up less rapidly, start puberty at later ages, and age biologically at a slower rate. They start having sex later in life and have fewer sexual partners, preferring monogamous relationships. People on the slow path also tend to have fewer children, to have them later in life, and to be married when they do so.

In sharp contrast, people on the fast track grow up more rapidly, start puberty at earlier ages, and age biologically at a faster rate (if you’ve ever been to a high

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