Modeling Social Status and Fertility Decisions Under Differential Mortality

The role that social status plays in small-scale societies suggests that status may be important for understanding the evolution of human fertility decisions, and for understanding how such decisions play out in modern contexts. This paper explores whether modelling competition for status—in the sense of relative rank within a society—can help shed light on fertility decline and the demographic transition. We develop a model of how levels of inequality and status competition affect optimal investment by parents in the embodied capital (health, strength, and skills) and social status of offspring, focusing on feedbacks between individual decisions and socio-ecological conditions. We find that conditions similar to those in demographic transition societies yield increased investment in both embodied capital and social status, generating substantial decreases in fertility, particularly under conditions of high inequality and intense status competition. We suggest that a complete explanation for both fertility variation in small-scale societies and modern fertility decline will take into account the effects of status competition and inequality.

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Reduction of spermatogonia and testosterone in rat testes flown on space lab-3

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100142864 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 248-249

Author(s):

Delbert E. Philpott ◽

W. Sapp ◽

C. Williams ◽

T. Fast ◽

J. Stevenson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Interaction ◽

Social Status ◽

Population Size ◽

Physiological Response ◽

Social Rank ◽

Reproductive Function ◽

Testicular Development ◽

Organ Weights ◽

Reproductive Maturation ◽

Metabolic Activities

Space Lab 3 (SL-3) was flown on Shuttle Challenger providing an opportunity to measure the effect of spaceflight on rat testes. Cannon developed the idea that organisms react to unfavorable conditions with highly integrated metabolic activities. Selye summarized the manifestations of physiological response to nonspecific stress and he pointed out that atrophy of the gonads always occurred. Many papers have been published showing the effects of social interaction, crowding, peck order and confinement. Flickinger showed delayed testicular development in subordinate roosters influenced by group numbers, social rank and social status. Christian reported increasing population size in mice resulted in adrenal hypertrophy, inhibition of reproductive maturation and loss of reproductive function in adults. Sex organ weights also declined. Two male dogs were flown on Cosmos 110 for 22 days. Fedorova reported an increase of 30 to 70% atypical spermatozoa consisting of tail curling and/or the absence of a tail.

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Adolescent Voice Quality Aberrations: Personality and Social Status

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.1103.576 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 576-582 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

John R. Muma ◽

Ronald L. Laeder ◽

Clarence E. Webb

Keyword(s):

Social Status ◽

Voice Quality ◽

Personality Characteristics ◽

Control Group ◽

Peer Evaluations ◽

Adolescent Voice

Seventy-eight subjects, identified as possessing voice quality aberrations for six months, constituted four experimental groups: breathiness, harshness, hoarseness, and nasality. A control group included 38 subjects. The four experimental groups were compared with the control group according to personality characteristics and peer evaluations. The results of these comparisons indicated that there was no relationship between voice quality aberration and either personality characteristics or peer evaluations.

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The Effects of Status on Perceived Warmth and Competence

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000012 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 82-87 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Marco Brambilla ◽

Simona Sacchi ◽

Federica Castellini ◽

Paola Riva

Keyword(s):

Social Status ◽

Perceived Competence ◽

Goal Achievement ◽

Group Status ◽

The Relationship

Research has shown that perceived group status positively predicts competence stereotypes but does not positively predict warmth stereotypes. The present study identified circumstances in which group status positively predicts both warmth and competence judgments. Students (N = 86) rated one of two groups (psychologists vs. engineers) presented as either being low or high in social status on warmth and competence. Results showed that status positively predicted competence stereotypes for both groups, but warmth stereotypes only for psychologists, for whom warmth traits are perceived to be functional in goal achievement. Moreover, for psychologists perceived warmth mediated the relationship between status and perceived competence. Results are discussed in terms of the contextual malleability of the relationship between perceived status, warmth, and competence.

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