Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40101-023-00330-7(2023) 42:13

Journal of
Physiological Anthropology

Open Access

REVIEW

What makes people grow? Love and hope
Barry Bogin1,2,3,4*   

Abstract
Background Hope and love are popular themes of literature and art in many human societies. The human physiology of love and hope is less well understood. This review presents evidence that the lack of love and/or hope delays
growth disturbs development and maturation and even kills.
Main body Love and hope intersect in promoting healthy human development. Love provides a sense of security
and attachment, which are necessary for healthy physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Hope provides
a sense of optimism and resilience in the face of adversity. Loving relationships can foster a sense of hope in individuals and in society by providing support systems during difficult times. Similarly, having a sense of hope canmake it easier to form loving relationships by providing individuals with the confidence to connect with others.
Hope and love are the fundamental basis of human biocultural reproduction, which is the human style of cooperation in the production, feeding, and care of offspring. Examples are given of the association between human
growth in height with love and hope, including (1) the global “Long Depression” of 1873–1896, (2) “hospitalism”
and the abuse/neglect of infants and children, (3) adoption, (4) international migration, (5) colonial conquest, and (6)social, economic, and political change in Japan between 1970 and 1990.
Conclusion Overall, this review suggests that love and hope are both critical factors in promoting healthy humandevelopment and that they intersect in complex ways to support emotional well-being.
Keywords Biocultural reproduction, SEPE, Secular trend, Community effects, Strategic growth
Background
Hope—Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in theface of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! ~ Barack
Obama, 2004 keynote address to the Democratic
Convention.
The human mind can cope with anything but theloss of hope. ~ Elizabeth Luard, from her book Family Life, 1996, p. 28).

*Correspondence:
Barry Boginb.a.bogin@lboro.ac.uk
1
UCSD/Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny(CARTA), San Diego, USA
2
School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University,
Loughborough, UK
3
University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, USA
4
Diversity Scholars Network, Ann Arbor, USAI think that HOPE is the single most important emotional factor for all aspects of human growth, development, and maturation. B Bogin, from the lecture‘Hope, despair, and hope again: the intersecting
cycles for healthy human growth and development’delivered at Durham University 23 February 2023.
As a child in the 1950s, my mother said to me: “There
are starving children in Europe. Eat your supper, otherwise you will not grow.” This seemed right to me at thetime. During and after World War II, Europe did experience starvation in the Netherlands, in Greece, in eastern
Europe, and the Soviet Union and defeated Germany.
Food rationing was imposed everywhere. In the USA, it
started in 1942 and most food rationing ended in December 1945, but sugar rationing continued until June 1947.
My mother was a teenager during those years and experienced food rationing directly. In victorious Britain, foodrationing did not end until midnight on 4 July 1954, when

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Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon
were lifted. That was 9 years after the end of the war. Photographs I saw in Life magazine and elsewhere (https://​www.​ m agnu​ mphot​ o s.​ com/​ n ewsr​ o om/​ s ocie​ t y/​ d avid-​
seymo​ur-​child​ren-​of-​europe/) in the late 1950s and early
1960s depicted war refugees, holocaust survivors, andUS conscientious objectors to military service who “volunteered” for The Minnesota Starvation Experiment [1],www.​bbc.​co.​uk/​news/​magaz​ine-​25782​294). To my childmind, these images evoked hunger as the people were thinand seemed small. My mother had to be right—if thosepeople had more food to eat, then they would be bigger.
Young people do need food to grow. They also require
adequate housing and sanitation, health care, education, andmany other decent standards of material and social living
conditions. These needs have been widely promulgated inwriting since Sumerian Mesopotamia, about 3500 BP [2]. In
contrast, the essential emotional factors required for healthy
growth and development have often been downplayed orignored. One effort to promote emotional, as well as materialand social, needs for health is the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights [3]. The Declaration codified amuch-enlarged list of biocultural needs of all humans. Article 25 of the Declaration makes two points that are especiallysalient to the topic of love, hope, and human development:
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself andof his family, including food, clothing, housing andPage 2 of 18

medical care and necessary social services, and theright to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care
and assistance. All children, whether born in or outof wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
I have italicized the words of most salience. Thesewords relate to the right to security, the right to a livelihood, and special care for mothers and children. Security, livelihood, and special care are part and parcel oflove and hope. To be sure, many other emotional factors,
such as empathy, resilience, and self-efficacy, are equallyimportant for healthy human growth and development. It
may be argued that hope and love have an underlying primacy and are required to promote these other emotional
traits. Perhaps this is why hope and love are so often central themes of literature and art in many human societies.
Stories that associate hope with the crane bird (Grusjaponensis and related species) are one example. Crane
mythology can be found throughout history in cultures
around the world, from India to the Aegean, South Arabia, China, Korea, Japan, Australia, and North America.
In Japan, the crane is one of the mystical or holy creaturesand symbolizes good fortune, longevity, peace, and hope.
The crane features in traditional Japanese art, dance, andorigami (paper folding, Fig. 1). An ancient Japanese legend
promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes

Fig. 1 On the left, Crane, eighteenth century, by Mitsusuke (1675–1710), National Museum in Kraków. The author died in 1710, so this work is in the
public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer. Top right,
Crane dance of the Ainu women, northern Hokkaidō, Japan. Photographer Arnold Genthe, 1869–1942, created/published 1908, Digital Id, agc a05214
https://​hdl.​loc.​gov/​loc.​pnp/​agc.​7a052​14. No known restrictions on publication. Bottom right, Cranes folded in origami paper. Artist Laitche, created:
18 December 2007. This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Laitche. This applies worldwide. In some countries, this may
not be legally possible; if so, Laitche grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are
required by law

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

will be granted a wish by a crane. After World War II, thecrane came to symbolize hope for peace and the innocent
victims of war through the story of schoolgirl Sadako Sasaki(佐々木 禎子 7 January 1943—25 October 1955) andher thousand origami cranes. Sadako was a victim of theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA.
She was 2 years of age when the bombs were dropped andwas severely irradiated. Suffering from leukemia because of
the atomic radiation and knowing she was dying, Sadako
undertook to make a thousand origami cranes before her
death. Following her diagnosis, she survived for another10 years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha (被爆者 or 被曝者)—a Japanese term meaning “bombaffected person.” She is remembered through the story of
the more than one thousand origami cranes she folded
before her death. Sadako’s brother reports that she folded atleast 1300 cranes. After her death, she became internationally recognized as a symbol of the innocent victims of war
and remains a heroine to many Japanese girls [4].
The cultural symbolism of hope played an importantsocial role in late nineteenth century Britain. In European
Christian theology, hope is traditionally considered to bea virtue associated with the grace of God. Hope was “naturally" bestowed upon people rather than being earned
by work or self-improvement. European artists followed
the Greco-Roman tradition of representing hope in the
personification of young woman.
The impact of industrialization, urbanization, military
conflict, civil wars, and revolutionary movements acrossEurope, combined with laissez-faire capitalism and environmental degradation, during the 1800s caused social
upheaval and economic instability. These factors andothers led to the long depression or great depression of
1873–1896. This depression had worldwide effects withthe greatest harmful impacts in North America andWestern Europe, as measured by downturns in the rate of
growth of industrial productivity [5]. Productivity in the
USA declined by 24% and by 43% in Britain with both theindustrial and agricultural sectors suffering. There wasunemployment and underemployment, and increased
poverty across the British Isles, which then included Ireland. The Bank of England kept interest rates as high as
9% in the 1870s. In 1878, the City of Glasgow Bank in
Scotland collapsed, and in 1879, there was famine forthousands of Irish tenant farmers due the high rents andfall in agricultural prices. In 1870, 97% of all Irish farmers were tenants and many were evicted because they
could not pay rents. This crisis and the suffering it caused
launched the Irish Land War in 1879, which resulted
in the reforming Irish Land Acts [6, 7]. Even these acts
could not prevent escalating insecurity, violence, hatred,
and fear that led, ultimately, to revolution and Irish independence from British rule in 1922.

Page 3 of 18

The long depression induced hardships physically (famine, illness, violence, etc.) and harmed the Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) well-being of people
globally. Other research has established that SEPE factors are associated strongly with amounts and rates ofhuman growth and maturation [8, 9]. SEPE effects during the long depression were no exception. This may beseen in the changes of height of adult men born before,
during, and after the long depression (Fig. 2). In the USA,adult height declines for men born throughout the periodof ~ 1870–1885. In Britain (United Kingdom), heights on
average stagnate during the same period (slight increase
followed by slight decrease). In both countries, after 1885,
there is a relatively steep increase in average male heights
with each succeeding year of birth. Nearly a century later,
there was a decline in height in the 1970s, likely associated with economic recession, social insecurity, fear, andother harmful SEPE factors. The 1973 oil crisis led to thedecline of traditional British industries. Inflation in the
UK spiked, rising from 9.2% in September 1973 to 12.9%
in March 1974, and unemployment also climbed sharply.
The government enacted a policy to ration electricity andeven so there were frequent power cuts. Another policy
enforced a 3-day working week.
In contrast, average adult heights of Italian and Japanese men increased throughout the birth years of 1870–
1885. Italy also suffered during the long depression, but
the Italian industrial production and Italian averageheight were very low compared to the USA and Britain.
Due to these factors, perhaps, the long depression had
no noticeably negative effect on Italian height growth.
The trend in male height for Japan is documented only
from the year 1880. The effect of the long depression on
the Japanese economy was marginal compared with theother countries, as production dropped by only 8% in
the period 1873–1896 [10]. The height of men is stablethrough 1885 and then begins to increase at a rate thatis remarkably similar to that of the UK, USA, and Italy,
despite the fact that Japanese heights are much shorterin the 1880s. Further discussion of the changes in heightby year of birth of men in Japan, Italy, USA, and Britain
is given below in the section titled “Secular trends ingrowth and hope.”
Harmful SEPE conditions destroy hope and reduce physicalgrowthThe social-economic-political turmoil of the long depression provoked emotional responses in the populationof Britain. Many people began to question the notionof progress, the existence of God and the virtue of hope[11]. New schools of philosophy, especially those basedon the writing of Friedrich Nietzsche, saw hope as anegative attribute that encouraged humanity to waste

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

Page 4 of 18

Fig. 2 Average height in centimeters of men by year of birth, 1810 to 1980. The data were derived from historical records of the heights of soldiers,
conscripts, prisoners, and others. The gray rectangle denotes the time of the long depression of 1873–1896 in the USA and Western Europe. Sourceof image: https://​ourwo​rldin​data.​org/​graph​er/​avera​ge-​height-​of-​men-​for-​selec​ted-​count​ries?​count​r y=​GBR~ITA~USA~JPN. Data source: Human
Height, University of Tübingen, 2015, Link: https://​uni-​tuebi​ngen.​de/​fakul​taeten/​wirts​chafts-​und-​sozia​lwiss​ensch​aftli​che-​fakul​taet/​faech​er/​fachb​
ereich-​wirts​chaft​swiss​ensch​aft/​wirts​chaft​swiss​ensch​aft/​lehrs​tuehle/​volks​wirts​chaft​slehre/​wirts​chaft​sgesc​hichte/​forsc​hung/​data-​hub-​height.​html.
Retrieved: 26 March 2023

energies on futile efforts. Even before the long depression of 1873–1896, there was rapid and pernicious socialand environmental deterioration in British cities and thecountryside [12]. There is evidence that the growth ofchildren suffered. As early as the 1830s Edwin Chadwick(b.1800—d. 1890) published data on growth and healthof factory children that helped change laws regarding
minimum age and working conditions for children. Someof these data are reproduced in Fig. 3, which compares
the average height deficit of the English factory children
against the international reference data for stature published by the United States National Center for Health
Statistics (NCHS) [13]. In this figure, the “0” line represents the 50th percentile height (the “average”) of thereference population. The factory children were 16.3
to 23.5 cm shorter than the 50th percentile of the same
aged children in the USA, or England, in the 1970s. Even
worse, the factory children were 7.9 to 11.4 cm below
the 5th percentile of the NCHS references. In a group ofchildren, an average height below the 5th percentile is anindication of major growth delay and stunting, meaning
very low body length-for-age. This magnitude of stunting is usually seen only in children with serious physical/
emotional pathology.

Health and nutritional conditions for the factory children were very poor and this undoubtable reduced their
growth, but a lack of love by their society and feelings ofhopelessness likely further depressed growth. In his 1842
Report on the sanitary conditions of the labouring population of Great Britain, Chadwick found that there wasa link between poor living standards, the spread of disease, feelings of hopelessness, and poor physical growth.
He reported that unsanitary conditions in Britain’s urban
slums, into which rural peoples had been forced tomigrate due to evictions from their homesteads, had ademoralizing effect on the families affected [15]. The lossof hope in these families was felt by the children, and thisfurther stunted their growth.
The capacity of artworks to arouse emotions

The artist George Frederic Watts (1817—1904) responded
to the demoralizing SEPE conditions of the long depression. Watts produced a series of paintings designed topromote happiness, the most notable was titled hope(Fig. 4). Some art historians report that Watts felt that theencroaching mechanization of daily life, and the focus onmaterial prosperity to Britain’s increasingly dominant middle class, were making modern life soulless. A personal

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

Page 5 of 18

Fig. 3 Height of English factory children in 1833 compared with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references. The heightsof the factory children are shown as deficits, in cm, to both the 50th percentile and the 5th percentile of the NCHS references. Original figure by B
Bogin, first appeared in Bogin (2021), based on Chadwick’s data as published by Tanner [14]Fig. 4 Hope by George Frederic Watts (1885) the Watts Gallery,
Compton, Surrey. Public Domain. A blindfolded female figure sitson a globe, playing a lyre that has only a single string remaining.
The background is indistinct but has one shining star (the star
above Hope’s shoulder, enlarge an online image e.g., https://​en.​wikip​
edia.​org/​wiki/​George_​Frede​ric_​Watts#/​media/​File:​Assis​tants_​and_​George_​Frede​ric_​Watts_-_​Hope_-_​Google_​Art_​Proje​ct.​jpg)

tragedy also impacted Watts. In late 1885, his adopted
daughter Blanche Clogstoun lost her infant daughter Isabel to illness. Watts wrote to a friend, “I see nothing but
uncertainty, contention, conflict, beliefs unsettled andnothing established in place of them” [10, p. 70]. Perhaps
to counteract his despair, Watts set out to reimagine thedepiction of hope. His first hope canvas was completed in
1886 and several versions followed over the next decade.
The British public reacted favorably, and many cheaply
printed copies were sold immediately. Later, higher quality
reproductions were available, and these sold well.
The theme of hope resonated in British and then American society throughout the next century. Watt’s composition of “hope” influenced several other artists, including
Pablo Picasso (e.g., The Old Guitarist, painted 1903–04),
poets, and a 1922 American film based on the imagined
origins of Watts’ hope painting (sic, “based on a true
story…”). In 1954, Percy Collick, a British trade unionist and Labour MP, urged “Labour stalwarts” to attend
an exhibition of the hope painting because that painting“renewed faith and hope.” Collick’s remarks came aftera recent meeting with a Viennese Jewish woman who
endured concentration camps and “the terrors of the
Nazi War” (quoted in [11]). In 1959, Martin Luther King
Jr. delivered his Shattered Dreams sermon. In the sermon, King wrote, “There is much truth in George Frederick Watts’ imaginative portrayal of hope in his picture
entitled Hope. He depicts hope as seated atop our planet,
but her head is sadly bowed and her fingers are plucking
one unbroken harp string. Who has not had to face theagony of blasted hopes and shattered dreams?” [16].

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

Page 6 of 18

In the late 1980s, another American minister, Jeremiah
Wright, attended a lecture by Frederick G. Sampson in
Richmond, Virginia, on the George Frederic Watts’ painting Hope. The lecture inspired Wright to give a sermon
in 1990 based on the painting. Wright’s sermon included,“Have the audacity to hope for that child of yours.
Have the audacity to hope for that home of yours.
Have the audacity to hope for that church of yours.
Whatever it is you’ve been praying for, keep on praying, and you may find, like my grandmother sings,’There’s a bright side somewhere; there is a brightside somewhere. Don’t you rest until you find it, forthere is a bright side somewhere” [17].
The “bright side” is the one shining star on the background of the Hope painting.
A law student named Barack Obama was in the audience the day of Wright’s sermon. As the presidential candidate in 2004, Obama delivered his campaign addressand changed Wright’s “Audacity to hope” to “Audacity ofhope.” This became the title of Obama’s second book of
memoirs [18]. The “Audacity of Hope” also represented
Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign via his “Hopeposter” (Fig. 5).

Hope and love are the fundamental basis of human
biocultural reproduction
All human beings, especially, pregnant women, mothers, and young people, need the type of support and carethat comes from human systems of healthy biocultural
reproduction. The concept of biocutural reproduction
is defined as, “…the set of marriage and kinship-based
rules for extra-maternal cooperation in the production, feeding and care of offspring” [19]. This definitionof extended family care of women and their offspring
applied to all people during the 99% of human history
when our ancestors lived in anthropologically traditionalsocieties, that is, societies based on economies of foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, and pre-industrial farming.
Post-industrial and urbanized societies also need healthy
biocultural reproduction and assure this via newer forms
of assistance from extended family, friendships, paid or
unpaid carers, and governmental institutions (schools,
health care systems, social care systems, etc.). In bothtraditional and modern post-industrial societies, “it takes
a village to raise a child” (a traditional African proverb). People need the physical and emotional security ofknowing that they will have a diet that meets all nutrient
requirements, the security of good water, sanitation andprotection from infection, and the security of other material safeguards such as adequate housing and education.
These are the minimal requirements for survival. But
these alone do not make for a healthy, well-grown person.

Fig. 5 Barak Obama Presidential campaign poster, 2008. Obama
Poster Art by Shepard Fairey, based on a photo taken by Mannie
Garcia for Associated Press. Image from https://​en.​wikip​edia.​org/​wiki/​
File:​Barack_​Obama_​Hope_​poster.​jpg. Reprinted under the Fair Use
statures of United States copyright law

Infants lacking social interaction and love do not growwell physically and may die, even when given all their
physical necessities (see below for evidence).
Human biocultural reproduction is successful onlywith true well-being, and this happens when young people have hope. Hope comes from opportunities to participate in healthy social and community environments,
when the young are part of systems of meaningful informal and formal education, and when the young and theirfamilies have realistic expectations for a stable, productive, and meaningful livelihoods. The importance of livelihood was mentioned previously in this review as Point
1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Livelihood is essential for hope. This was emphasized by Klaus
Toepfer when he was Executive Director of the United
Nations Environment Programme. Toepfer stated in2001 that people have the, “…basic rights to life, health,adequate food and housing, and traditional livelihoodand culture” [20]. The UN does not define “livelihood.” A
narrow definition of “livelihood” is the work people do toBogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

secure an income and physical necessities. In the social
sciences, the concept of livelihood extends to include
social, cultural, and emotional needs. One bioculturaldefinition of “livelihood” is, “…the command an individual, family, or other social group has over an income and/or bundles of resources that can be used or exchanged tosatisfy its needs. This may involve information, cultural
knowledge, social networks and legal rights as well as
tools, land and other physical resources” [21]. Anthropologists understand that a livelihood is not only a way
to make a living—it is a way to make living meaningful.
Indian anthropologist Rashmi Rekha Tripathy reviewed
research on the social science concept of “livelihood”
and wrote, “…there is a moral or cultural dimension to
livelihood as well as a material dimension: livelihood
involves not simply the satisfaction of material needs it
also involves the satisfaction of emotional, spiritual andintellectual needs” [20, p. 1]. Tripathy conducted fieldwork among Juang tribal agriculturalists in Odisha State,
India. Tripathy found that changes to the means of financial livelihood due to migration from the village to urban
areas not only impacted the people’s economic status but
also their socio-cultural life, including their family andkinship networks, religious rituals and festivals, and themarriage system. These are part of the definition of biocultural reproduction given above. Healthy environments
for biocultural reproduction and livelihoods ensure emotional security and provide hope to people as much as
they provide physical needs.

Healthy human growth is a “love story”
Readers of this article likely have received and given
much love during their lives. At the 2009 symposium,“Origins of Altruism and Cooperation,” Walter Goldschmidt is quoted as stating, “You talk about cooperation and altruism but what you really mean is LOVE. We
shouldn’t be afraid to use the word LOVE. That is whatmakes us truly human” (from the dedication to the bookfrom the symposium [22]. “Love” and “hope” have many
meanings, and I focus only on those that relate to biocultural reproduction and human growth. The primatologist Allison Jolly wrote that humans have “,,,few, much
loved offspring…” [23]. “Love” in this context refers to
the prolonged care that primate mothers lavish on theiroffspring. A specifically human expression of love andhope is Robert LeVine’s [22, 23] proposal that all humanparents have a universal evolutionary hierarchy of goals
for their offspring. LeVine’s parental love and hope manifests as two goals: (1) encourage the survival and thehealth of offspring and (2) develop offspring into selfsupporting adults with culturally specific and acceptablebeliefs and behavioral norms. Many anthropologists andothers have elaborated on Jolly’s and LeVine’s version ofPage 7 of 18

love and hope [24–28]. In particular, Sarah Hrdy builds
on Goldschmidt’s work and shows that love and hope
manifest in the emotional and physical commitment thatmany people must make to successfully support a pregnant woman, her infant, and her older children, juveniles,
and adolescents. Goldschmidt called the need for thiscommitment “affect hunger,” which is, “…rooted in biology and emerges with culture” [27 (Goldschmidt, 2006,
p. 141]. To satisfy our affect hunger, we humans musthave nurturant love from others to complete our physicaldevelopment and provide the hope needed to bring us toculture. Infants and children deprived of nurturant loveand hope often die and those surviving do not grow wellin body or brain. They never become healthy, cultural
persons.

A lack of love and hope is deadly
Psychosocial short stature is a well-studied condition thatshows how the neuroendocrine system mediates the relationship between psychological-emotional factors andphysical growth. Psychosocial short stature is a clinicalcondition of slow growth or growth failure between birthand adulthood that cannot be ascribed to an organic
problem with the person, but rather to behavioral disturbance and emotional stress in the environment in whichshe/he lives. Another symptom is delayed puberty. A
diagnosis of psychosocial short statue is confirmed when
the infant, child, or youngster is removed from that environment and growth, development, and maturation are
spontaneously restored [29, 30]. Saenger and colleagues[31] showed that changes in growth rate of children withpsychosocial short stature are not associated with caloric
intake. Rather, many behavioral and emotional factors
can lead to psychosocial short stature, and a history ofabuse, neglect, and/or emotional deprivation is common.
The key proximate cause is hormonal. In a review of his
clinical experience with psychosocial short stature Rappaport [32] stated that “…the most consistent biological finding was the decrease of circulating somatomedin
activity…”. Somatomedin is now called IGF-1 (insulin-likegrowth factor-1). IGF-1 is the most potent endocrine
hormone for linear growth. Children suffering from
affective emotional deficiency and psychosocial shortstature may also have reductions and derangements inthe physiology of other neuroendocrine markers, such as
melatonin, serotonin, β-endorphins, and adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH). Derangement of tryptophan
metabolism (an essential amino acid) is also known [33].
Each of these are regulators of physical growth.
As early as the year 1701, there was clear evidence ofa relationship between the psychosocial environmentand human development. This evidence, published inBogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

Gerhardts Handbuch der Kinderkrankheiten (Gerhardt’s
Handbook of Pediatric Diseases) and reprinted by Peiper
in 1955 [34], consisted of the percentage of infants admitted to foundling homes who died while in care. The data
are reproduced here in Table 1 in descending order of thepercentage of infants dying. In Irkustk, Siberia, Russia,
100% of infants entering the foundling home died, but
no date was given by Peiper. In Dublin, Ireland, for nearly
all the eighteenth century, 98% of infants died in thefoundling homes. The percentage of deaths decreased,
generally, over time, but remained 50% or higher except
for the cities of Prague and Bordeaux. Those two cities
had foundling homes and also placed some infants withcaregivers in the rural countryside. The Prague infants
seemed to fare worse there and the Bordeaux infants
slightly better. Peiper’s book contains several commentson the “clean conditions” and “good diet” provided in thefoundling homes, nevertheless so many of the infants
died. A lack of adequate psychosocial stimulation, to
use the WHO phrase, or more simply put, a lack of love,
seems to have been a contributing factor to the deaths.
In the USA, one of the first observations of foundling home deaths was made by Harry Chapin in 1915.
Chapin, a physician, visited 10 orphanages and hospitals
in the New York City region that cared for abandoned
infants. These institutions provided an acceptable level
Table 1 Infants dying in foundling homes in European cities
or nations with two cases of deaths to infants placed into carehomes in the countryside. Data from [34]City or country

Year

Percent dying

Irkutsk

No date given

100

DublinI701–1797

98

Petersburg

1772–1784

85

Brussels

1811

79

Petersburg

1785–1797

76

Vienna

1811

72

Paris

1780

69

Paris

1817

67

Moscow

1822–1831

66

Gent

1823–1833

62

Dijon

1838–1845

61

Mons

1823–1833

57

Brussels

1817

56

Belgium

1823–1833

54

Petersburg

1830–1833

51

France1838–1875

50

Prague1865

20

1850–1861

18

Infants placed in the countryside
Bordeaux
Infants placed in the countryside

35
15

Page 8 of 18

of care in terms of hygiene and feeding, yet in 9 of the
10 orphanages all the infants under 2 years old died. In
1942, Harry Bakwin proposed that the cause of thisextraordinary mortality was emotional deprivation. In
the first half of the twentieth century, the medical community in the USA believed that “excessive” physical contact of an infant and its caregivers was deleterious. In theorphanages and hospitals, where the staff were likely to
be overburdened with many infants, physical contact was
reduced to a minimum. Bakwin believed that the deprivation of physical contact led to a negative emotional
state, growth failure, and death.
René Spitz (1887—1974) carefully investigated thecauses of poor growth experienced by emotionally disturbed infants and children [35]. His studies focusedon orphans confined to foundling homes and otherinstitutions. Spitz quoted a diary entry of a Spanish Bishop who wrote in the year 1760, “En la Casa deNiños Expositos el niño se va poniendo triste y muchos
de ellos mueren de tristeza” [In the Children’s Home,the child becomes sad and many of them die of sadness]. Spitz compared the development of infants in one
foundling home with infants raised in the nursery of apenal institution for delinquent girls. Inmates of the latter facility were the natural mothers of the infants. Bothinstitutions provided an acceptable standard of housing, sanitation, medical care, and diet for the infants.
The children in the penal nursery had more physical andsocial stimulation, due to their full-time care by theirown mothers, or full-time substitutes. In the foundling home, care was provided by one nurse, and infants
were confined to their cribs, without human contact, formost of the day. Over the 2 years of study Spitz foundthat the foundling home children became progressively
delayed in their physical and mental development compared with the nursery infants and a control group of
home-reared infants. At about age 3 years, the foundling home children had average heights and weights
expected for children aged 1.5 years. The developmental
status of the nursery infants did not differ significantly
from a control group of infants raised at home. Moreover, the mortality rate for infants in the foundling homewas 37%, while in the nursery group, no child had died.
Spitz used the term “hospitalism” to describe the syndrome of poor physical and mental development andhigh mortality experienced by institutionalized children. It took some time for Spitz’s research to make asignificant impact, but eventually a new medical paradigm for infant and childcare was proposed by pediatricians. By the 1950s, Benjamin Spock, the author of animmensely popular “baby care book,” advised parents tohold and cuddle their infants in ways that had been considered indulgent just a few years earlier.

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

The critical importance of physical contact in early
development was the focus of the famous experimental
studies conducted by Harry Harlow (1905–1981) andhis colleagues [36, 37]. Harlow established several typesof rearing environments for rhesus monkeys living in alaboratory. Some infants were raised by their mothers,
and other infants were separated from their mothers, but
given access to inanimate surrogates. One type of surrogate was a wire frame with a bottle and nipple positioned
so that the infant monkey could cling to the wire andfeed. Another type of surrogate was a wire frame covered
with a soft textured cloth. Infant monkeys preferred tocling to the soft cloth surrogate and would even give up
feeding for the opportunity to touch and caress the cloth.
Behavioral and emotional development was impaired in
the monkeys exposed to both types of surrogates, and theinfant monkeys had elevated stress hormone levels, but
the impairment was more severe in those with wire-onlyrather than cloth covered surrogates.
The implications of the research by Spitz and Harlow
were applied by Tiffany Field (b. 1942) to the needs ofpreterm infants. Many preterm infants must be given
extraordinary medical care to survive. Poor growthand development of those infants that did survive wasa common outcome. Often, the medical care required
placement in an incubator that isolated the infant fromphysical contact with the mother or other caregivers.
Field conducted a series of experiments which showedthat tactile stimulation could ameliorate much of thepoor growth and development. The stimulation could
be provided by placing an infant confined to an incubator on a sheepskin fur pad or by allowing the infant tobe fondled through “glove hole” access into the incubator.
As little as 15 min of gloved touch resulted in 50% fasterrates of growth in the isolated infant [38, 39].

What is more important, food or love?
Green and colleagues [40] reviewed the literature relating to psychosocial short stature, with an aim toward
evaluating the role that nutrition and endocrine factors
play in the etiology of the disease. It was found that mostcases of growth failure in infants (birth to 36 months)
were due to malnutrition; these infants were usuallydenied food by their emotionally disturbed parents or
caregivers. Children over 36 months of age were usually
not clinically malnourished. Moreover, it was commonly
found that both GH (growth hormone) and IGF-1 levels were significantly depressed in these older children.
Malnutrition, in contrast, is associated with low levelsof serum IGF-1 and abnormally high secretion of GH,
so the endocrine profile of the children did not fit withstarvation as the cause of their growth failure. Greenand colleagues accounted for the growth disturbance

Page 9 of 18

in the children with a neuroendocrine hypothesis. They
built on the work of Patton and Gardner [41], who proposed that emotional stress may affect some of the higher
brain centers, particularly the amygdala and limbic cortex, which are known to control the emotions. Nerve
impulses from these brain centers may pass to the hypothalamus where they are transduced into neuroendocrine
messages that may affect the production and release of
hypothalamic hormones. In this manner, psychologicaldisturbances in the child might be translated into a cutoffof GHRF (growth hormone releasing factor) in the hypothalamus, a halt in GH secretion from the pituitary, anddepressed levels of IGF-1 secretion from the body tissues.
Neuroendocrine mechanisms for the relationshipbetween emotional stimulation, growth, and health wereconfirmed by both experimental studies with nonhuman animals and in clinical human studies. In a laboratory experiment, Meaney and colleagues [42] compared
infant rats that were licked by their mothers with infant
rats who were not licked. The licked infants had lower
levels of so called “stress hormones,” the glucocorticoids
such as cortisol, high levels of GH, high growth rates, andeven higher scores on tests of learning. In later research,
Meaney and colleagues [43] reported direct pathways
between physical stress, the release of glucocorticoid
hormones, and several central nervous system neurotransmitters which regulate the activity of the hypothalamus and pituitary in humans as well as rats.
In clinical human studies, Skuse and colleagues [44]reported on a group of 29 children with psychosocial short stature and GH insufficiency accompaniedwith hyperphagia, that is, an excessive intake of food.
The researchers found that when these children were
removed from their stressful home circumstances, theGH levels spontaneously returned to normal and thehyperphagia ended. Clearly, none of these children was
denied food, but they were denied proper emotional careand their growth suffered. Studies with infants and children placed into foster care also find little evidence fora nutritional cause for growth retardation. These fostercare studies do find that one of the first physical changes
that occurs with placement is an increased rate of growthin height and weight. Wyatt and colleagues [45] pointed
out that most children placed into foster care do notshow signs of overt clinical psychosocial short stature or
sub-nutrition. Even so, Wyatt and colleagues’ study of 45
apparently healthy and well-nourished infants and children aged 1.5–6 years placed into foster care found morethan half experienced clinically and statistically significant catch-up growth in height following placement. This
foster-care study shows that even when stature, weight,
and food intake appear to be normal, a stressful homeenvironment may be retarding growth. An alternative isBogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

also possible, placement into a loving and hopeful homeenvironment stimulates growth.
There are more recent reports of the harmful growthand development consequences of institutional deprivation and emotional neglect/abuse at home, with thedreadful experiences of Romanian orphans being notable [46–48]. These orphans suffered severe psychosocial
deprivation prior to adoption, due to the social-economic-political environment imposed under the regimeof dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu between 1965 and 1989.
Edmund Sonuga-Barke and colleagues have shown thatthe negative impacts on the orphans included derangements of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis
and stress hormone activity [48]. The association of physical growth with the HPA axis and emotional stress was
discussed above.
Even 20 years after adoption into British families providing all needed care and love, the former orphans
showed evidence of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal
axis dysregulation and impaired neurodevelopmental and mental health trajectories. In terms of physicalgrowth, the former orphans did show remarkable catchup growth in height in the first year after adoption, but
had slow growth during the rest of their childhood andadolescence. The former orphans had permanent growthstunting in adulthood due largely to that slow growth
combined with an early onset of puberty and early completion of skeletal growth. These consequences were
especially severe in girls.
A case study, reported by Magner and colleagues[49], provides a final example of the powerful interplay
between emotions and growth. The study is of a 12-yearold boy who suffered growth retardation and delayed
sexual maturation following an emotional trauma. The
trauma was provoked by an argument between the boy
and his stepfather, with whom the boy had a warm relationship. After the argument, the boy verbalized a wish
for his stepfather’s death, and the next day the man
seriously injured himself falling from a roof. The hospital where the man was recovering sent an erroneous“notice of death” letter to the family’s home which theboy received and read while at home alone. Though theman eventually recovered, the boy began a self-imposed
period of food refusal and vomiting. He dropped from34 to 25 kg in 5 months. At age 15 years, following
periods of hospitalization, drug treatment, and counseling his eating behavior returned to normal. But, his
growth did not, and at age 17 years, he had the heightof a normal child of 11.3 years, a bone age of 13 “years,”
and was, essentially, prepubertal in physical appearance. He was given treatment with growth hormone atage 19.3 years, and between ages 20 and 21 years experienced a growth spurt and sexual maturation. GrowthPage 10 of 18

in height continued until age 25 years, when the young
man reached 171 cm. The authors of this report statethat in this patient, an acute, “…psychic trauma induced
a deranged hormonal state that persisted for several
years” (p. 741). Though malnutrition and drug treatments in the 3 years following the trauma may have also
upset the hormonal balance, the boy was behaviorally
normal and drug-free for about 5 years before treatment
with GH returned his growth and maturation to normal.
This case and the others previously discussed exemplify
the intimate and powerful influence that emotional factors, such as love, fear, guilt, and hopelessness can haveon the human neuroendocrine system and the patternof human growth.

Can more love and hope make you taller?
The historical events, human physiological research, andclinical case studies reviewed here show that a lack oflove and hope can slow skeletal growth, delay maturation,and even be deadly. The following is evidence that morelove and hope can promote greater height and healthiermaturation and reduce infant/child mortality.
Migrants, adoptees, and conquerors—socially upgrading
and growing taller

Of particular interest are migrants who escape from pooror dangerous living conditions to find more prosperous
general living and socio-economic conditions, usuallywith improvements in nutrition, health, housing, water,and sanitation [50]. These migrants may be classified as“social upgraders” when successfully integrating into the
new host population. Adoptees and refugees from lowerincome nations to the high-income nations belong to thisgroup. In contrast, there are “social downgraders,” such as
war refugees who are forced into camps or slums. The living conditions of these social downgraders are often terrible and the growth and development of their offspring
suffers [51], often due to gross malnutrition and rampant
infections. Social downgraders also suffer from socialemotional abuse that leads to mental health difficulties,
including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, selfharm, sleep disturbance, and behavioral difficulties [52].
The daily living conditions in camps and slums impose
psychological stressors, such as lack of space and control,
violence, feelings of inadequacy, and hopelessness. Social
downgraders in the context of migration are not further
discussed here, as the harmful consequences of hopelessness on human physical growth were detailed above.
Another group of interest that is considered here consists of migrants who arrive in a new place as invaders,colonial rulers, and other types of political, economic, or
psychological oppressors who dominate their host populations. These migrants may be classified as “conquerors.”

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

To compare the effects of being a social upgrader or conqueror, it is useful to test two hypotheses:
1. Cultural and structural assimilation by “social
upgrading” migrants into their new host populationis accompanied by adjustments in height of theirgrowing offspring toward the median height of thehosts.
2. Migrants using violent, oppressive, or military andcolonial conquest is accompanied by height growthof their offspring that significantly surpasses themedian height of both the conquered population andthe population of origin.
Maya refugees from Guatemala to the USA are a testof the first of these hypotheses. A marked improvement
in height of children who migrated to the USA may beseen in Fig. 6. The group of children and adolescents
aged 5–17 years (n = 1897) who were born and raised in
Guatemala, measured in 1998, had a mean height − 2.54
z scores below WHO standard/reference [53]. The meanheight of children and adolescents aged 5–12.99 years(n = 245), most born in Guatemala and raised in Florida
and in Los Angeles, California, measured in 1992, was–1.15 z scores. Finally, the mean height of children andadolescents aged 5–12.99 years (n = 444), most born andraised in Florida and Los Angeles, measured in 2000, wasonly − 0.53 z scores below WHO standard/reference. The
figure not only shows that migration of the families toPage 11 of 18

the USA affected the mean values of height, but also that
migration influenced the entire range of the distribution.
The US-born group measured in 2000 increased in heightby more than 10 cm within a single generation, but theheight difference between the tallest and the shortest
within the group remained unchanged as compared withsedentes in Guatemala and those born in Guatemala andmigrating in the first months or years after birth. Better
nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), andmedical care certainly account for some of the heightincrease of US-born Maya. But, if these were the only
explanations, then we would expect that the lower tail ofthe distribution, those most suffering from malnutrition,etc., would show the greatest increase in height. This is
not the case. Height distributions remain virtually scale
invariant, and they simply shift to the right, as a whole.
As explained elsewhere [2, 9], a civil war in Guatemala
forced most of the Maya families to migrate. Most adultMaya migrants to the USA aspired to maintain cultural
identity rooted in their formative experiences in rural
Guatemala, such as Maya language. Maya refugee children, on the other hand, were born or raised in the USA
and most learned both English and Spanish simultaneously, fewer of the refugee children learned their Maya
language. While Maya values were still strongly emphasized at home, children acquired non-Maya cultural values and behaviors on the streets and in the schools. It is
likely that Maya parents loved their children in both Guatemala and the USA, but the migrants had more hope forFig. 6 Height distribution in z scores of Maya children and juveniles aged 5–17 years old raised in Guatemala (N = 1897) in 1998, and in two
US locations in 1992 (N = 245) and in 2000 (N = 444). The width of the three distributions is almost identical despite the much shorter heightof the Guatemala-raised sample

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

a better life now and in the future. The increase in heightof these socially upgrading and more hopeful children of
immigrants moved them closer to the height distributionof their hosts, that is, European-Americans and AfricanAmericans. But the first-generation of Maya-Americans
were still part of a migrant community with its own SEPE
ecology and still tended to cluster in height. That clustering may explain both their height distribution and theirshorter-than-the-reference average height.
Additional examples of a height increase for sociallyupgrading and more hopeful children of immigrants, forexample, from Bangladesh to the UK and from Japan to
Hawaii and California, are described by Bogin and colleagues [54].
A relatively new type of migrant are international adoptees (IAs) from low-income countries, adopted by families in high-income countries. Similar to the Romanianorphans discussed above, many of the IAs were institutionalized or placed in foster care prior to adoption. They
may have been stunted, wasted, and emotionally scarredby their experiences with maltreating families or neglecting orphanages [55]. At the time of placement with their
new families, most of these IAs with delays in physicalgrowth, motor development, and cognitive skills show
rapid catch-up of the delays. This was the case for the
Romanian adoptees. Some part of the catch-up is certainly due to better nutrition and health care. Anotherpart of the catch-up may be associated with the newsocial networks of improved emotional care and the hostsociety’s target for taller average height and greater cognitive competences. While the Romanian case shows thatthe catch-up may be limited and without improvement in
adulthood, most other studies of IAs indicate statisticallyand biologically that the early gains in height and cognition persist into adulthood [54].
Many additional examples of both IAs and adoptees
within a nation or community show that adoption is oneof the most effective interventions to overcome previous
growth stunting and developmental delays. Adoption iscertainly more effective than any of the nutrition supplementation, WASH, or education interventions triedin the countries/communities of origin of the adoptees.
Adoption, just like the migration of Maya from Guatemala to the USA, places the adoptees in new social
networks and leads, in general, to positive community
effects and strategic growth adjustments on height, cognition, and emotional well-being [56].
Community effects and strategic growth

The community effects hypothesis posits that the attainment of final height, weight, body composition, and body
proportions of individual people arises, in part, from theinfluence of their bio-social-psychological proximity with

Page 12 of 18

members within a social network. These factors influence growth when the brain transduces SEPE factors in
the community environment into more-or-less neuroendocrine production of various growth regulating substances. Strategic growth may be defined as adjustments
to body size or rate of growth that are associated withposition in the social hierarchy. Strategic growth adjustments are observed when groups of young people growlarger body size or grow to adulthood at a faster rate toachieve social and reproductive dominance [2, 56]. Strategic growth has been observed in cooperatively breeding
mammal species where reproduction is virtually limited
to the most dominant female and male individuals [57].
It is also observed in human social groups as part of biocultural reproduction [58]. The catch-up growth experienced by social-upgrading migrants and adoptees areexamples of the process of strategic growth in new socialemotional communities, as well as the effects of relief
from stress and hopelessness.
Military conquests are a form of migration and also a
powerful force influencing love and hope in a society. Following conquest both the vanquished and the conquerors
show evidence of community effects and strategic growthchanges. Conquerors form the dominant social strata,
and they usually take care to ensure that their offspring
maintain social dominance. They do not integrate, butrather impose their social networks on their subjects.
Colonial Europeans of the nineteenth and early twentiethcenturies were not only taller than their native subjects,
but also taller than their continental relatives in Europe.
White US Americans of the early-to-mid nineteenth century surpassed white Europeans by several centimeters[59]. By 1860, American White men averaged 174.1 cm,
while adult men in England averaged 165.6 cm andin Sweden and Norway men averaged 168.6 cm [60].
Greater height for colonists was also true for Dutch white
settlers of nineteenth-century South Africa [61] and Australia [62].
Tall stature also prevailed in the children of colonialists during the early twentieth century. Measurements ofDutch children raised in a boarding school in Brastagi,Indonesia, were made between 1926 and 1928 [63, 64].
These Dutch children were similar in height with “tall”
US American children measured in 1924 and up to 15 cm
taller than German children measured in 1922 or children in Amsterdam measured in 1916 [54]. The Dutchcolonial children were, of course, very much taller thanindigenous Indonesian children. It is unlikely that thegreater stature of the Dutch colonists’ children was due
to better nutrition and health compared with their counterparts in Europe. The wealthy of Europe could acquire
good diets and medical care. The burden of tropicalinfections from microorganisms and parasites that areBogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

considered responsible for poor growth in many tropical indigenous populations likely also affected the offspring of the new colonists, but these infections do notexist in Europe. Instead, it is proposed that the greater
height of European colonists in America and in Indonesia are evidence in support of hypothesis 2 (given above).
The greater height of the colonial Europeans was in largepart due to their self-perception as the dominant social
class with a consequent competitive growth and strategic
growth adjustment toward greater average height. The
colonists and their children controlled the hope for a better life now and in the future.

Secular trends in growth and hope
Human biologists and physiological anthropologists
define “secular trends” as the change in the mean size,
shape, or performance of individuals of a population fromone generation to the next. Such trends can be positive(e.g., increasing size) or negative (e.g., decreasing size).
These changes may be easy to measure, but what do secular trends mean? Many plausible and fanciful proposals
exist to explain secular changes. A few of these are as follows: (1) transportation technology such as bicycles andrailroads leading to genetic hybrid vigor as people fromformally isolated villages met, married, and produced
offspring; (2) changing climate and seasonal effects; (3)the availability and price of sugar or other commodities
as a cheap form of food energy; (4) environmental toxicants and endocrine disruptors, such as PCBs, which
may accelerate puberty; and (5) the development of public utilities to provide heating—allows greater energy
investment in growth vs. keeping your body warm–and
artificial lighting–may stimulate growth, somehow. It isalso proposed that psychosocial changes in the family, inschools, via media, etc., expose ever-younger children tosexual stimulants that accelerate growth and maturation.
Each of these factors may play some small role, but it
is now well accepted that modifications of the social-economic-political-emotional (SEPE) environment leading
to transformations in the quality of life are the principle
causes of secular changes in growth and maturation. The
quality of life may be measured by SEPE variables suchas education and literacy levels, food availability/market
prices, cost of living, real wages, gross domestic product(GDP), social class and gender stratification/discrimination, rules for voting participation leading to democratization of society, and public expenditures on health. No
matter which measures are used, the feelings of safety,
security, and a hopefulness for the future are always
greater in those populations that have more, and a moreequal distribution, of these factors [65].
Human height almost always follows the upward trendof physical well-being, emotional security, and hopeful

Page 13 of 18

expectation of a better life. These complex interacting variables and their influence on physical growth are
discussed in detail, with supporting literature, in the
new edition of my book Patterns of Human Growth [2],chapter 7]. The causal relationship between better SEPE
environments and greater mean stature is so strong thatmean stature itself is used to characterize the SEPE environments of historic and prehistoric populations before
the invention of statistics such as infant mortality rates(IMRs), gross domestic product (GDP), literacy rates, or
cost of living indices. Some human biologists and economists call the relationship between the S and E (socialand economic) components of SEPE environment withheight the biological standard of living [66–68]. This isa valid perspective, but far too narrow to appreciate theimportant impact of the political and emotional components that complete the SEPE model.
Pioneering researchers such as René Villermé (1782—
1863), Chadwick, Franz Boas (1858—1942) and othersfrom the nineteenth and twentieth centuries emphasized
the importance of the SEPE environment as the cause of
secular changes but could at best only correlate relationships [2]. Today, we understand many, but not all, of theways that feelings of chronic stress, love, hope, and other
SEPE factors are transduced into neuroendocrine substances by the hypothalamus, the pituitary, the adrenals,
other endocrine organs, the skeleton, other tissues andcells, and, even, mitochondria [69–79]. We understandthat SEPE factors can exert their influence on human biology via the genome, the epigenome, the proteome, and themetabolome [80–83]. We better understand, and can trace
some of the physiological pathways, from chronic exposure to the SEPE “pollutants” of inequality and insecurity
to shorter stature, overweight/obesity, both early and latematuration, and behavioral pathology in affected children
and adolescents [8, 9, 84, 85]. We appreciate how humanbiology interacts with high levels of persistent violence tocreate an ecology of fear and biocultural stress that inhibits
healthy growth and development for people of all income
levels [9].
We now have a physiological and anthropological understanding of secular trends in stature, such as
those depicted in Fig. 2. Where there are declines inadult height prior to 1885, there was also deteriorationof SEPE living conditions, related to unregulated industrialization, urbanization, and rising inequality. Parental
love for children may not have diminished, but societal“love” for children—in terms of social, educational, vocational, and health support—may have diminished. There
was also a loss of hope for a better life. Declines in societal love and in hope repressed growth in stature. Upturns in height reflect the restoration of hope, whether
by belief in an artist’s work or by measurable economic

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

and social improvement. Political change was also a factor. Despite all the environmental harm and economic
inequality inflicted by eighteenth and nineteenth century
laissez-faire capitalism in Europe and North America,
there was also a wave of revolution and civil war startingin 1775 in America and then 1789 in France and continuing to 1917 in Russia. The period 1848–1851 in Europe
was especially important as the revolutionary zeal
reached the countryside and influenced the peasants,
the landless farming tenants, and other low SEPE statusrural people [86]. Focusing on this revolutionary period
in European/North American history, my colleagues
Michael Hermanussen, Sergei Erofeev, and Christiane
Scheffler pointed to the associations between the new
revolutionary environment of SEPE factors in the cities
and the countryside with human physiology and evolutionary biology by writing recently that the,“…changes in in social and political values within
only a few decades, the striving for change andeconomic supremacy, the pull for aggressive
behaviour not just of single persons, but of whole
populations – we may mention the political riots
and revolutions of that time – now interact withthe evolutionarily favoured and conserved neuroendocrine competence for adaptive developmental plasticity. Modern westernised people
are competitive. The newly emerged values andbehaviours, the striving towards social status
and prestige has destabilised the previously rigid
feudal dominance hierarchies and conveyed formerly stationary social structures with acceptedcues predicting dominance and subordination,
into combative structure. The new structuresare seductive. They promise personal chances
to upgrade in social rank, even with the risk of[there] being costly within group aggression. We
consider the rapid secular rise in average bodyheight of the European populations observed during the late 19th and the early 20th century as aresult of socially induced permanent overstimulation of the hypothalamic growth regulation” [79].
In their article, titled The socio-endocrine regulationof human growth, Hermanussen and colleagues provide
the details of the probable pathways from revolutionarychanges in social values to hormonal regulation of theskeletal growth (see their Fig. 1). Revolution instilled
hope for a better future and people literally grew towardthat hopeful future for themselves and their children.
The secular trend in Japan

There was also revolution and social change in Japan in thenineteenth century. The Tokugawa Shogunate had, in 1854,

Page 14 of 18

opened Japan to Western commerce and influence. The
Tokugawa Shogunate was ruled by military leaders but was
overthrown in 1868 and was followed by a government
formed by politicians, called the Meiji government. With
the new policies of the Meiji government the process ofJapanese integration with Western style social-economicpolitical, and perhaps emotional values accelerated. One of
the biggest impacts on the economy that the Meiji periodbrought was the end of the feudal system. According to an
anonymous author of the Wikipedia page https://​en.​wikip​
edia.​org/​wiki/​Econo​mic_​histo​ry_​of_​Japan,“In the Meiji period, leaders inaugurated new, Western-based education systems for all young people,
sent thousands of students to the United States andEurope, and hired more than 3,000 Westerners toteach modern science, mathematics, technology, andforeign languages in Japan. The government also
built railroads, improved roads, and inaugurated
a land reform program to prepare the country forfurther development … With a more educated population, Japan’s industrial sector grew significantly.
Implementing the Western ideal of capitalism into
the development of technology and applying it totheir military helped make Japan into both a militaristic and economic powerhouse by the beginning of
the 20th century.”
Throughout the Meiji period there was rapid industrialization, the development of a capitalist economy, and thetransformation of many feudal workers to wage laborers.
During the first half of the Meiji period, there were labor
disputes in the mining and textile industries, mostly inthe form of small-scale strikes and spontaneous riots. By
the end of the nineteenth century strike action increased.
In 1897, a metalworker’s union was established and thismarked the beginning of a modern Japanese trade-union
movement. With the changes in social structure, education, working conditions, and hope for the future theJapanese people were able to advance through the ranksof society more easily than before. The average heightof men (Fig. 7) also advanced at pace with these SEPE
changes in Japanese society.
An important analysis by Makiko Kouchi [87] showedthat the secular trend in Japan was stronger for people of lower socioeconomic classes than it was for thehigher SES groups. The analysis is shown in Fig. 7 withnewer data to the year 2000. The data for “students”
were based on measurements of university students,
who are the upper social class of Japan. “Conscripts”
and “general population” are the lower social classes.
The data for students for the years 1924–1927 and forthe general population for the years 1919–1926 are forheight measured at ages 21–35 years. All other data

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

Page 15 of 18

Fig. 7 The relationship between the year of birth and average adult height for Japanese born after 1870, based on government statistics. The data
for students for the years 1924–1927 and for the general population for the years 1919–1926 are for height measured at ages 21–35 years. All otherdata are for height measured at age 20–24 years. “The average adult height of Japanese young men and women increased with time, especiallyin the generations of the 1940s and 1950s after World War II. However, the rate of change has slowed in generations born after the mid-1960s
and has stopped in generations born after 1980” (translated from the original Japanese [87]). The upper two plots are for men and lower two plots
for women. The symbols indicate: men women—high SES 20-year-old students, ● low SES 20-year-old conscripts (men), ◊ men women—
low SES 20-year-old general population, men women—post-1975 students and general population. Source: Dr. Makiko Kouchi, National
Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The figure is reprinted with kind permission of the author

are for height measured at age 20 years. The steepest
increase in average height for the general population
occurred from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Theseare people born 20 years earlier, growing up from thelate 1910s to 1920s. After 1975, there were no differences in average height between university students andthe general population, in part because a university education was possible for young women and men from thegeneral population. Likely reasons for the strong positive height trend of the general population during thetwentieth century were industrialization and urbanization of Japan that brought about major changes in SEPE
factors. The changes were especially strong for the lower
social classes, including social and political changes
due to rural-to-urban migration, universal education,
greater democratization, and the breakdown of thepower of the monarchy and aristocracy after World War
II. These SEPE changes resulted in a reduction of social
inequalities, greater socioeconomic opportunities, andgreater hope for the lower social classes—the group thatexperienced the greatest increases in height.

Conclusion
A famous quote about happiness is, “The three grandessentials of happiness are: Something to do, someone
to love, and something to hope for.” These words areoften attributed to Alexander Chalmers (1759–1834), a
Scottish writer. Some sources attribute the quote to theEnglish essayist, poet, playwright, and politician Joseph
Addison (1672— 1719). But the most likely author of thequotation was the American clergyman George Washington Burnap (1802— 1859) and published in Burnap’sbook, The Sphere and Duties of Woman: A Course of Lectures (1848), in his Lecture IV [88]. The complete quote is
on page 99 (page 109 of the online edition of the book),“The grand essentials to happiness in this life aresomething to do, something to love, and something tohope for. We all must have something to love. Especially is this the case with woman, whose capacity
for affection is much greater than that of man.”
While the book is sexist and couched in the Divine fitting of, “…woman to her sphere” (p.98–99/108–109),
Burnap follows the famous quote with statements from,“…Rousseau, that great delineator of the humanheart, which is as true to human nature as it isbeautiful in expression; ‘Were I in a desert I wouldfind out wherewith in it to call forth my affections.
If I could do no better, I would fasten them on some
sweet myrtle, or some melancholy cypress, to connect myself to; I would court them for their shade,Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

and greet them kindly for their protection. I would
write my name upon them, and declare that they
were the sweetest trees throughout all the desert.
If their leaves withered, I would teach myself tomourn, and when they rejoiced I would rejoicealong with them.’ Such is the absolute necessity
which exists in the human heart of having something to love. Unless the affections have an object,
life itself becomes joyless and insipid.”
Another quote from Burnap, page 181/191, “Thereis no brighter emblem of hope than a vigorous, welldeveloped child. For it we anticipate all the possible
enjoyments of this life, it possesses that which is thecondition of all satisfaction in anything, a strong physical constitution.” And finally, on page 293/299 Burnap
writes, “A bad government paralyzes all enterprise by
extinguishing all hope. It puts an end to all invention bytaking away all motive. It makes a people idle, vicious,
discontented, miserable. Under a good government
men work together…”
Unfortunately, the quote ends abruptly as pages 294–
295 are missing from the scanned online facsimile ofthe book.
Even so, we know how good government fosters ways
for people to work together for better SEPE conditions, forgreater equality in all arenas of life, and for healthier lives.
Burnap knew the essential ingredients of successful
biocultural reproduction and healthy human development. To grow well, people—woman, man, child,infant—require love and hope. An important question
is: are Burnap’s observations generalizable to different populations or contexts? Based on anthropologicalliterature reviewed in previous sections, such as thework of LeVine, Jolly, Goldschmidt, and Hrdy, the typeof love and hope discussed in this article are human
universals. The cultural universality of love and hopewere identified by Donald E. Brown in 1991 and thenagain by Brown and others in 2000 [89]. Brown’s list of
human universals defines “love” as “affection expressed
and felt” and as “attachment.” The universality of hopeis listed as the word “hope.”
Another possible limitation of the emphasis on loveand hope is oversimplification. Love and hope are but
two of the many essential material, biological, social,and emotional needs of people. A lack of any one ofthese essential needs will impair human well-being.
Most of these needs are understood as essential and arecodified as such in technical, legal, medical, scientific,
and philosophical literature. The essential need for loveand hope is less ubiquitous in the literature. The present article argues for greater appreciation and attention to the essential need for love and hope.

Page 16 of 18

Th essential need for love and hope opens the possibility for new research to address several additional questions. Firstly, how can individuals cultivate hope and lovein their own lives? An Internet search using the wordingof this question returned thousands of web pages withadvice and strategies for cultivating love and hope. Readers are welcome to peruse these web pages and glean
from them the most appropriate practices for themselves
and for others. A second question is: are there any practical applications of this research for healthcare or education professionals? In previous sections of the present
article, some applications were described, for example,
the critical need to receive touch and face-to-face social
interaction by infants in medical isolation and orphanages. With respect to education, a Harvard University
webpage notes that, “Very little has been written about
how love impacts teaching and learning” (https://​www.​gse.​harva​rd.​e du/​news/​e d/​18/​08/​what’s-​love-​got-​do-​it).
The website is a review of a book published in 2018 withthe title, Love and Compassion: Exploring Their Role in
Education [90]. The author is Professor John Miller who
writes that love is a powerful, motivating force for manyteachers and students. Miller’s educational love includes
self-love, love of beauty, compassion for others, and alove for learning. The classroom, in Miller’s view, is acommunity. The community effects hypothesis discussed
in the present article has likely implications for human
growth and development in both formal and informal
contexts of teaching and learning.
A third question: Is it possible to assume that the
average height of a group reflects the social, economic,
and political factors of that group, while the height ofan individual reflects the factor of emotion, in addition
to social, economic, and political factors? This question
could be the basis of a new program of research. My
hypothesis is that social-economic-political-emotional(SEPE) factors, including love and hope, influence theheight of both individuals and the group (community)
to which they belong. SEPE factors, along with genomics, epigenomics, material, nutritional, and biologicalconditions, form a complex matrix of interactions (seediscussion of the matrix in [2, chapter 8] That matrix
of interactions creates, metaphorically, a “bioculturallens” that refracts growth trajectories to create thewonderous plasticity and diversity of human forms.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the Editor, Shigekazu Higuchi, and other Editorial Board
members for the invitation to submit this article.
Authors’ contributions
BB performed all research, analysis, and writing for this paper.
Funding
No funding was received.

Bogin ﻿Journal of Physiological Anthropology(2023) 42:13

Availability of data and materials
The datasets created and/or analyzed during the current study are available
from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable as all data and all analyses are based on existing, publicly available data.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The author declares that no competing interests.
Received: 29 March 2023 Accepted: 26 June 2023

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