Seminar Series@Jose 14/11/19
Seminar Session: 14 November 2019 11.30am @ AS7 06-42
We are excited to announce that our research fellow, Jose, will be sharing his research findings at the Graduate Studies-Research Division Lunchtime Seminar Series!
Find out more about his research below~ Be there or be square!
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When status interferes with mating: The incompatibility between social status and reproductive goals in modern context
Abstract:
Discussions of a “fertility problem” typically revolve around economic and structural accounts of hindrances to reproduction, which inadequately address the fundamental and motivational factors that lead to people having less children. According to evolutionary theory, humans have fundamental goals they must pursue in order to survive and reproduce, and we evolved adaptive psychobehavioral traits to facilitate the pursuit of those goals. Under certain “mismatch” conditions (i.e., when an adaptive trait is not well suited to a particular environment), however, these goals and their corresponding adaptations can compete and become incompatible, especially in evolutionarily novel modern settings. Two fundamental goals that, in modern settings, can become increasingly at odds with on another are mating and social status. More specifically, modern conditions can increase people’s obsession with social status, resulting in prioritization of social status goals over mating goals. I will extend this to an analysis of developed East Asian countries, who are the front runners in ultralow fertility today.