Economic recessions, childhood environments, and the contingent expression of fast a slow life history strategies

V. Griskevicius, J. M. Ackerman, S. M. Cantu, A. W. Delton, T.E. Robertson, J. A. Simpson, M. Emery Thompson, J.M. Tybur

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Just as modern economies undergo periods of boom and bust, human ancestors experienced cycles of abundance and famine. Is the adaptive response when resources become scarce to save for the future or to spend money on immediate gains? Drawing on life-history theory, we propose that people's responses to resource scarcity depend on the harshness of their early-life environment, as reflected by childhood socioeconomic status (SES). In the three experiments reported here, we tested how people from different childhood environments responded to resource scarcity. We found that people who grew up in lower-SES environments were more impulsive, took more risks, and approached temptations more quickly. Conversely, people who grew up in higher-SES environments were less impulsive, took fewer risks, and approached temptations more slowly. Responses similarly diverged according to people's oxidative-stress levels-a urinary biomarker of cumulative stress exposure. Overall, whereas tendencies associated with early-life environments were dormant in benign conditions, they emerged under conditions of economic uncertainty. © The Author(s) 2013.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)197-205
    JournalPsychological Science
    Volume24
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

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