I'll bet that works in other situations too. I believe that an asshole doesn't stop being an asshole just because his environment changes.

What instantly comes to mind is the running feud we have here between drivers and bicyclists and who is worse. I walk pretty much everywhere, and from what I've seen and people I've known it comes down to a bad driver is a bad biker is a bad pedestrian. The "I own the road, so get out of my way" attitude travels with them no matter what they are doing.

both strategies are adaptive, each in their own appropriate environment.

So bunnies stay in the ghetto/trailer elephants move to the suburbs/uptown?

I agree with the gist of the paper and the idea is kind of self evident. The more attention you pay to offspring the better they are in all facets of life. I have only one issue with the analogy and one that I can't see the author getting around. Unlike the human analogue a bunny can not become an elephant and vice verse.

BTW just to point out in nature there are far more bunnies than elephants. Bunnies have never been threatened with extinction, elephants were and certain species are gone. So maybe being contentious is a maladaptive trait?

On the other hand if bunnies over produce the whole ecosystem can and will collapse.

Yeah, vlad, I'm not sure you can take the animal analogies very far when it comes to human behavior. Part of the difference is simply the size of the creatures involved -- large animals like elephants can't reproduce rapidly because if they did, they would overpopulate an area very quickly. The pressures on human reproduction aren't quite that direct.

However, I can see some tie-ins between Figueredo's material and Barb Oakley's Evil Genes book. Among humans, the Cluster B's are the champions of "fast life history", not only for reproduction rate but the general rate at which they use, consume, and discard -- not only material goods but relationships too. Borderlines, for example, are (in)famous for their impatience and microsecond-long attention spans. Over the course of my life, I've had far more contact with certain types of borderlines than I ever wanted to. These are the people who move every few months, always leaving a trail financial and relationship wreckage behind them. One thing that I have always observed about such people is that when they move, they often throw out perfectly good furniture and appliances simply because they don't want to go to the trouble of moving them. They always figure that, somehow or another, there will be more waiting for them whenever they get where they're going.

Was this an adaptive behavior at some time in the past? Maybe. I could see it perhaps in the case of a hunter-gatherer society. You hunt and gather in an area until it's tapped out. Then you move on. There's no need in taking your pointed sticks with you because there will be more sticks in the next valley, and sticks only last so long anyway.

"Was this an adaptive behavior at some time in the past? Maybe. I could see it perhaps in the case of a hunter-gatherer society. You hunt and gather in an area until it's tapped out. Then you move on. There's no need in taking your pointed sticks with you because there will be more sticks in the next valley, and sticks only last so long anyway"

Lack of attachment to material possessions can be a very good survival tactic in many situations. If you are living in a country with a very unstable political situation where your ethnicity has become a prime target (for example Jews in Germany in the 1930's) you will find survival rates are higest among people who are the quickest to walk away with little more than the clothes on their back. Many who stayed in Nazi Germany because they thought they could better protect their businesses and possessions ended up losing everything. This has been true in many times and places. Isabel

So, maybe there is an advantage to being a late developer after all?

Sounds pretty reasonable. Especially his comment about both being adaptable.
In time of disease or many disasters be more like the bunny, during time of want (drought, famine) be more like the elephant.

We've been letting bunnies roam around my property. Tourists like them, at least until the population becomes overwhelming, which may be soon at the rate they're breeding.

There is one dominant male bunny who seems to care for the rest - he even chases dogs away! He's so aggressive. It's pretty funny to watch. And did you know that if you turn a bunny onto it's back, it will fall asleep?

Not sure how that fits in with the research. Just interesting.

With persistence and an accurate air rifle, you can reduce the neighborhood's bunny population to almost zero within two weeks, furious reproduction be damned.

What? What did I say? (blinks, shrugs)

I read some study on centarians, and one thing they found that was pretty common among them was having their kids later in life. I don't remember any more details than that and can't google right now though. Of course, a lot of people who wait till 40 or later to have kids just won't have them at all, even with modern medicine. I think they postulated that it was linked to later puberty since the people in the study had their kids before fertility treatments were around, so they just naturally had later menopause which is common in late bloomers.

> slow life history makes a positive
> difference in humans. It's linked to—

That list didn't include delayed menarche. I heard a lecture on the radio once that said that a deeply, perfectly-nurtured young woman might not menstruate until 19 or later. Having no daughters, I never cared enough to read up on it later.

@momof4

Interesting observation on delayed puberty and longevity. Hopefully this works for me. It was traumatic being given a hard time by my peers when I was a teenager in Jr. High in the 70s and I looked about 3 years younger than the average for boys my age. Now I'm 48 and still a late developer - haven't got a pot belly and still have all my hair and look about 10 years younger. I guess I'll never catch up :)

It's interesting, but my adoptive mom has had to fear cancer more than my birth mom. Apparently, not having children is more of a cancer risk than having them, as far as uterine science goes. This sort of makes evolutionary sense, given that the purpose of the uterus is to carry a baby, and if it doesn't, then perhaps it hasn't fulfilled its biological imperative.

I'd rather fuck like rabbits.

I married a doggone woman once.

Thank you! No... please, Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thanks, I'm here all weekend, two shows Sunday. Try the veal! Don't forget to tip that waitress, and please, please, please... Drive safely! Thank you!

> perhaps it hasn't fulfilled its biological imperative.

"Biological imperative" is a pretty weird way to think of human tissues. These organs were refined in generations when a greater percentage of (short) lives were spent in pregnancy, so the chemistry is unpredictably stressed in modern conditions. God isn't actually wagging His finger at you, shooing you towards "imperatives". It's said that moderately malnourished people live longer, too. Of course, they're not as bright or energetic....

At first blush, the idea of slow life history seems to make sense as a way of living in the modern world where infant mortality is low, women live long lives, and the skills needed to earn a living usually take a while to acquire. It might not make as much sense when people die young and where the skills to care for your family can be acquired at an early age.

In the developed world, where the decline of factories and the transition to a service and information economy has greatly cut into the ability of people (men) without post-high school education or real trade skills to care for a family, the fast life history model is likely to end up producing poor outcomes: poverty, divorce, etc. Those who wait a bit longer to develop themselves before marrying and starting families are more likely to build their earning potential. More importantly, I suspect that when people choose a mate and settle down a bit later in life, they are more likely to choose that person wisely (e.g., picking the sane, secure woman instead of the crazy needy girl). And wise mate selection is really important to everything else that follows.

"That list didn't include delayed menarche. I heard a lecture on the radio once that said that a deeply, perfectly-nurtured young woman might not menstruate until 19 or later. Having no daughters, I never cared enough to read up on it later."

Another big historical reason for delayed menarche according to the sources that I have read was poor diet and very low body fat which delayed sexual maturity. A woman needs a certain amount of fat on her body and reasonably good nutrition to ovulate and have monthly fertile cycles. Women who get down below a certain level of body fat stop menstruating or never start at all. This was true in Japanese camps during World War II and also occurs in women athletes who do a lot of running. I had this happen once in my life when I was in the army and doing a lot of running. Other women I knew reported the same thing. Isabel

There was a book that came out a a little while back The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest. The author contends that moderate exercise, a modest diet and local support of family and friends will give you a healthy and long life.