Modern selection pressures in modern society? Which factor best explains the difference between human reproduction and mating?
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.08.001
Explanation
This study of human phenotypic traits will be conducted to find the relative importance of traits being under selection pressure and in the process of evolution.
For these analyses, they used the number of children and the phenotypic characteristics of previous marriages.
Using a data set consisting of 4991 Caucasian males and 5326 females educated to at least A level, the focus was on the relationship between age, education level, wages, religious intensity, age of father's children
Factors include s birth, rating of facial attractiveness, number of siblings of the respondent, and a polygenic risk score for general cognitive ability on the following dependent variables: i) number of children, ii) ever married, and iii) first age born.
For each factor, the relative contribution to the overall variance explained for the dependent variable is further examined, and spousal choice is the most important determinant of the number of children for both men and women.
Wages explained most of the overall variance in "ever married," but in different directions for men and women, as is the case for the association between wages and the number of children.
Education in both women and men explains most of the difference in age at first birth, the effect being postponed. Furthermore, phenotypic education is negatively associated with the number of children of both sexes, which is also true for polygenic risk scores for cognitive ability in males. Furthermore, in males, polygynous risk scores for cognitive ability were also shown to have a positive effect on reproduction through a positive interaction with wages.
These results are consistent with the hypothesis that there is selection pressure for recently occurring traits, such as education and income, since these variables explain only a small portion of the variation in fertility outcomes, with the exception of having ever been married, but they do not allow us to draw any final conclusions about selection.
