Life history theory

Life history theory is a collection of hypotheses in evolutionary biology that explain why animal species differ in so-called life-history traits.
These traits include body size (including size at birth), growth and developmental schedules, the number, size, and sex ratio of offspring, reproductive schedules, sex drive, lifespan, extent of investment in the offspring and, in social species, level of pro-sociality and competition with other groups.
The most prominent of these hypotheses that attempted to explain why species differed in these life-history traits was developed from the evolutionary biologist E.O Wilson's r/K-selection theory. This theory stated that species vary on these life-history traits depending on the selection pressures in terms of reproductive scheduling exerted by their local ecology.https://www.cs.montana.edu/webworks/projects/stevesbook/contents/chapters/chapter002/section004/blue/page003.html
Organisms were conceptualized to exist on a "fast-slow" spectrum that explains variations in these physiological traits, called their life history speed. Essentially species could either adopt a more qualitative or a more quantitative approach to reproductive scheduling.
R-strategist species (from the slope of the line in biological models modeling population growth, with r representing exponential growth) are adapted to unstable ecologies where the evolutionarily optimal strategy is to produce as many offspring as possible. They also invest little bioenergetic resources into somatic effort, (development and the maintenance of body systems) and typically have brief lifespans.
K-strategist species (from the German word for capacity, Kapazität) are evolved in a stable but harsh ecology that has reached its carrying capacity in terms of population growth. In such ecologies, the optimal evolutionary strategy is to invest more in physiological development and maintenance and limit reproduction, focusing more on the viability of the offspring by investing heavily in them in terms of nurturance.
Owing to this model's potential predictive power and its importance to evolutionary biology as a whole, evolutionary psychologists (and other social scientists) eventually seized on the concept of animal species existing on a fast/slow life history spectrum. They applied it to explain variations in human behavior, both among individuals and among broad racial groups (J.P Rushton's controversial ).
While the social sciences' adoption of life history theory has proven controversial, many argue that it exhibits strong consilience (the synthesis of knowledge from disparate fields, in pursuit of a "universal theory of everything") and parsimony in explaining individual differences in a broad suite of physiological and behavioral traits.https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8611/1/1/15/htm Many of these traits do correlate with each other along the lines predicted by life history theory models.
Critics, on the other hand, tend to argue that the application of a singular slow/fast spectrum to human variation in life-history traits is overly simplistic, that individuals adapt to their environment differently than species,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513818302848 that the application of LHT to human behavioral traits is internally inconsistent, and that the application of LHT to human traits by psychologists is too broad.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513820301203
Though humans are a K-adapted species, it seems likely that individual humans (and even whole cultures and societies) differ in life-history speed, either genetically or in response to environmental demands.
Thus life history theory can prove to be a useful predictive model for explaining human variation in traits such as age at first intercourse, mating effort, mating displays, level of intrasexual competition, pair-bonding ability, cognitive abilities, reproductive decisions, physical appearance, personality traits, and levels of aggression; in short, all things highly relevant to the discussion of the causes of involuntary celibacy.
==r/K-selection==
r/K selection is one hypothesis that attempts to explain how and why species differ on life history traits, adding additional mechanisms explained in the sections below (tbd). At the core of r/K selection is a distinction between two kinds of ecologies which are opposed on the spectrum of ecological harshness:
#Unpredictable, but easy ecologies, e.g. tropical regions are full of competing predatory animals, but food is readily available (e.g. fruits and smaller animals). Animals in such ecologies are said to be r-selected, where r is the growth rate and r-selected means maximizing growth rate. This means making as many offspring as possible and not investing much in them, hoping they will make their way through the unpredictable but easy environment, i.e. requiring little guidance on part of the parents. R-strategists have a fast life history (speed).
#Predictable, but harsh ecologies, e.g. cold regions have relatively low population counts as food is hard to attain through the winter. Animals in such ecologies are said to be K-selected, where K is the carrying capacity of the environment. In harsh ecologies this capacity is low, so species produce few offspring and care for them, and maintain the population size near the maximal carrying capacity. K-selected species evolve "K-strategies" that emphasize high levels of parental care, resource acquisition, kin provisioning, and social complexity. The K-strategy requires more com­plex nervous systems and larger brains. K-strategists have a slow life history.
In summary, an unpredictable but easy ecology favors quantity, while a predictable but harsh environment favors quality.
==CSR-selection theory==
===Resolving r/K selection and experimental deviations===
r/K selection theory did not answer some problems regarding reproduction. Firstly, it does not deal with Behavioral sink and its differentiation between monogamy and hypergamous single motherhood, as environmental stability and parenting effort are not necessarily aligned. Secondly, proponents of r/K-selection theory would often place the sexually promiscuous with receptive homosexuals, when in fact the biomarkers for receptive homosexualshttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87338-0 are the same biomarkers for strict monogamy conformistshttps://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0977, "beliefs in superstition" (which is a stand-in for religious fundamentalism)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.01.051 and verbal IQhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.03.016, which matches up the silhouette of K-selected social conservatives. Inversely, the biomarker that predicts masculinity also predicts greedhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886909001214, law-breakinghttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00254/full, preference of feminismhttps://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01011 and child sexual abusehttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-018-0326-0, which matches up the silhouette of r-selected "upper class liberals".
===Introduction to CSR-selection===
One way to resolve this problem, is with the CSR-selection theoryhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42562-7 (also known as Universal Adaptive Strategy Theory) by John Philip Grime, later elaborated upon by Kirk Winemiller and K.A. Rose. It is composed of three forms of mating: Ruderal (characterized by environmental scarcity with necessity towards parental security), Competitive (characterized by environmental and parental stability), and Stress-Tolerant (characterized by lack of parental effort in a safe environment). Some have since added a new form of mating called "Salmonid" (complete dissolution of environmental security and parenting effort) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165783618303606 to represent those that are diametrically opposed to Competitive strategy, whilst being between Ruderal and Stress-Tolerant strategies.
Principled Components has been identified that easily divides r/K-selection and Life History theory into two axeshttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0938-7https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S109051382030060X: 
*Spread of Reproduction (Sexual Distribution) vs Distribution of Mortality Risk (Distribution of Deaths), which is analogue to Opportunistic and Periodic (Equality) vs Equilibrium and Salmonid (Inequality)
* Fertility, Life Expectancy and Generation Time (Slower Existential Life) vs Mean Sexual Reproductive Rate (Faster Sexual Mating Life), which is analogue to Periodic and Equilibrium (Cohesion) vs Salmonid and Opportunistic (Instability)
The Four Major Forms of Selectivity:
*
*Opportunistic: Those that believe in competitive polygamy and radical patriarchy, and has earlier sexual maturity rate. Their childhoods often has male scarcity, and are unitarily chaotic (side effect of feminism). They respond by increasing male supply to compensate (which birth order can effect sibling sex ratios, also leads to more resource redistribution), and exploring new possibilities.
*Periodic: Those that believe in gynocentric monogamy, and has high fertility. Their childhoods often has scarcity of males and resources, and the environment are often fluctuating and unpredictable (side effect of "third wave" post-modern feminism and insurrection). They respond by restoring resource abundance (resources correlates to fertility and social cohesion), and reduce the unpredictability of the environment.
*Equilibrium: Those that believe in hypergamy and "second wave" feminism, and has high survival rate. Their childhood often has resource scarcity but not necessarily male scarcity, and the environment is often seasonal and predictable (side effect of entrepreneurship). They respond by inducing male scarcity (which in some case can reduce social instability, also reflated to increasing economic freedom), and creating environment monocultures.
*Salmonid: Those that believe in "sexual uprising" and atomization, e.g. "third wave" feminism, post-modernism, and insurrectionism, and has high mortality rate. Their childhood often lacks scarcity, and the environment are often homogenous and constant (side effect of industriousness). They often manufacture resource scarcity and chaos (through social polarization) to "get even".
===Application to human mating and quantification ala TFM===
This theory can be applied to human mating as well, as observed by TFM
His hypothesis matched Ruderal strategy with hard/traditionalist patriarchy/individualism and polygamy, Competitive strategy with soft/gynocentric/feministic patriarchy/individualism and monogamy, and Stress-Tolerant strategy with collectivist feminism, hypergamy and single motherhood. To extend this theory to Salmonid strategy, it can be associated to chaotic mating and "traditionalist collectivism".
To extend each mating strategy with quantifiable metrics
*Ruderal strategy would correlate to lower age at marriage
*Competitive strategy would correlate to high net fertility rate
*Stress-Tolerant strategy would correlate to low infant mortality
And modeling each transition (borrowed from Ages of Discord by Peter Turchinhttps://peterturchin.com/ages-of-discord) 
* Ruderal-to-Competitive transition (or social absolutism) can be quantified by high social cohesion and political velocity
*Competitive-to-Stress-Tolerant transition (or increase in individualism) to be quantified by high capital-income deviation or Gini/Theil index
*Salmonid transition ("leftism" and social collapse) as low income-to-GDP
A major critique of this theory is based on refuting the idea of the "cyclical theory of history", and that Peter Turchin has critiqued Strauss-Howe Generational Theory as its inability to be definitive, and instead proposed his own theory based on regulating or "negative" feedback loops.
A secondary critique of this theory is that the indices listed above has no quantitative measure on whether one prefer monogamy over polygamy or hypergamy as a mating strategy. Mating effort vs parental effort is a hotly debated subject, as currently there are only "lifetime sexual partner count" and "age of first intercourse" which can be heavily misreportedhttps://gss.norc.org/Documents/reports/methodological-reports/MR068.pdf, and subjective preference indices e.g. Relationship Orientation Questionnaire (Schwarz & Hassebrauck), Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (Simpson & Gangestad), Sex Drive (Ostovich & Sabini), Social Desirability Scale (Marlowe & Crowne), and Mating Effort Scale and Parenting Effort Scale (Kruger).
===Other Coincidental Relationship===
====Faith====
Competitive strategist propensity towards cultshttps://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6E5meTmEiEQXqKmBt/the-cult-deficit-analysis-and-speculation and faithhttps://archive.fo/F5StT (contrast to the lack of it in Salmonid strategists). Within OkCupidhttps://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/okcupid/howracesandreligionsmatchinonlinedating.html, there are some strong patterns: strong homophily between non-religious, Buddhists, and Jews, but weaker for Agnostics and Jews; Muslims being generally unpreferred; Hindu males being unpreferred, but less so for Hindu females; Jewish males being universally preferred; Christian homophily, but weaker for Catholics when compared to Protestants. Catholics, Agnostics and Jews in general have faster life-history compared to Protestants, staunch atheists and Buddhists, as the former are historically more war-heavy whilst the latter is more commerce-heavy. Lack of religious fundamentalism also leads to more matches. According to IFShttps://ifstudies.org/blog/sex-ratios-in-the-pews-is-there-really-a-deficit-of-men-in-american-churches, Catholics are more male-dominant than Protestants, and Jews are more male-dominant than Buddhists. Also, Muslims are male dominant, whilst Hindus are more female dominant. From this we can safely assume three factors: the more masculine a denomination is, the more heterophilic it becomes towards the faith; non-Abrahamic homophily are stronger than Abrahamic homophily; hyper-masculinized religions receive radically diverging matches base on ethnic SES differences (Jews vs Muslims), whilst hyper-feminized religions has the largest dating gaps between males and females.
====Politics and Hobbies====
Competitive strategist sees education and wealth as the same thinghttps://wid.world/document/brahmin-left-versus-merchant-right-changing-political-cleavages-in-21-western-democracies-1948-2020-world-inequality-lab-wp-2021-15/ (compared to Stress-Tolerant strategists who disregards education, and Salmonid strategists who sees them as polar opposites). According to OkCupid datahttps://theblog.okcupid.com/the-democrats-are-doomed-or-how-a-big-tent-can-be-too-big-fdc9bf8be312, Competitive strategists are the most preferred in dating, and Stress-Tolerant strategists are the least preferred (with Salmonid being slightly better than Ruderal). There are word use differences between the US Political Axeshttps://www.globaldatinginsights.com/news/using-dating-profile-words-can-reveal-personal-politics/: those that are sex-heavy are mor likely to tout words related to the military and hunting (Republican), drug use and social justice (Democrat); whilst those that are love-heavy are more likely to talk about faith and family (Republican), intellectualism and relaxation (Democrat).
===Defining factors of proving or disproving this theory===
#Recognize that the Alpha-Beta-Omega trifecta (or ChildNeedsFatherhttps://childneedsfather.com/alpha-beta-gamma-delta-omega-sigma-personality Sigma-Alpha-Beta and Gamma-Delta-Omega) can be mapped to the CSR-Selection theory
# Mating strategy can be compared with Lover-Provider-Friend strategies by ThePowerMoveshttps://thepowermoves.com/lover-provider-friend-dating-strategies/ and the three circles of PSILoveYouhttps://psiloveyou.xyz/nice-guys-incels-a-visual-representation-7dd8d5f27d01
#Being able to pair up mating/parenting effort and preference with data on reproductive strategies and socio-political beliefs e.g. Right-Wing Authoritarianism (Altemeyer), Social Dominance Orientation (Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle), Identification With All Humanity Scale (McFarland, Webb & Brown), Dominance-Prestige Scales (Cheng, Tracy & Henrich), Schwartz Value Survey and Portrait Values Questionnaire (Schwartz), Unified Motive Scales (Schönbrodt), Personal Value Questionnaire (McClelland), Leadership Descriptors (Ehrhart & Klein), Values Survey Module (Hofstede)
===CSR Theory and TFM Cycles===
Life History 	Opportunistic/Ruderal 	Periodic/Competitive 	Equilibrium/Stress-Tolerant 	Salmonid
Selection Pressure 	Predation 	Weak 	Scarcity 	Convergent
Modern Stages 	Traditionalist Patriarchy 	Gynocentric Patriarchy 	Feminism 	Atomization
Sexual Skew 	Feminine 	Convergent 	Masculine 	Divergent
Governing Principle 	Individualist/Subjective Traditionalism	Individualist/Subjective Feminism 	Collective/Objective Feminism 	Collective/Objective Traditionalism
 	 	 	 	
Childhood Scarcity by TFM 	Complete Scarcity 	Resource Scarcity 	Lack of Scarcity 	Male Scarcity
Ending Cause into Adulthood 	Seasonal Environment
Cultural Norms (High)	Constant Environment
Loss of Fear (Awakening) 	Unpredictable Environment
Societal Collapse (Unraveling) 	Social Restructuring
(Crisis)
Adulthood Scarcity and
Female Mating Strategy 	Resource Scarcity (Male Overabundance)
Competitive Polyamory	Lack of Scarcity (Comfort)
Monogamy 	Male Scarcity (Economic High)
Hypergamy and Single Motherhood	Complete Scarcity (Struggle)
"Sexual Uprising"
Social Characteristics of Adult Females 	Hyper-Feminine Artist
Spinster Nomad's Parent/Child	Gender Neutral Prophet
Hero's Parent/Child 	Hyper-Masculine Nomad
TradWife Artist's Parent/Child 	High Variance Hero
Prophet's Parent/Child
Adult Mating Counter-Pattern 	80-20 Rule and mass inceldom 	Dual Mating Strategy and Beta Orbiter 	Oral Contraception and Sexual Role Reversal (incl. Femdom)	Female Vocel and Male Chadsexual
Offspring Defining Trait 	Maturation Rate
e.g. Gen X Individualism	Fertility Rate
e.g. Post-war Millenial Nutrition	Survival Rate
e.g. Monster Parenting on Zoomers 	Mortality Rate
e.g. what caused the Baby Booms
 	 	 	 	
Priority 	Reproduction 	Survival 	Complacency 	(NONE)
Lewis Model 	Reactive
Asia Pacific & India 	Multiactive
Slavs, Latins & MENA 	Linear Active
WEU and Anglos 	Anti-Multiactive
High IQ "Atlantis"
Feminism 	Metamodern 4th Wave & Anti-Feminism 	Pre-Feminism 1st Wave 	Modern 2nd Wave 	Post-Modern 3rd Wave
Example Generations 	Silent or Generation Z 	Baby Boomers 	Generation X 	GI Generation or Millenials
Generational Binary Dividehttps://wid.world/document/brahmin-left-versus-merchant-right-changing-political-cleavages-in-21-western-democracies-1948-2020-world-inequality-lab-wp-2021-15/	Purely Education Divide 	Haves vs Have-nots 	Purely Income Divide 	Education v Income
 	 	 	 	
Schwartz Modelhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18175471https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1030.0048 	Conservation 	Transcendence 	Openness 	Self-Enhancement
Core Schwartz 	Conformity (Tradition) 	Universalism 	Stimulation (Hedonism) 	Power
Peripheral Schwartz 	Security 	Benevolence 	Self-Direction 	Achievement
Philosophy 	Horney/Fromm (Safety & Security) 	Jung (Higher Meaning) 	Freud/Erikson (Pleasure) 	Adler (Will-to-Power)
Core Representation 	Right Wing Authoritarianism 	Light Triad and Identification With All Humanity	Dark Triad 	Vulnerable Dark Triad and Social Dominance Orientation
Alignment 	Lawful or High Binding (Anti-Villain) 	Good or High Individualizing (Hero) 	Chaotic or Low Binding (Anti-Hero) 	Evil or Low Individualizing (Villain)
OkCupid Politics 	Authoritarian 	"US Republican" 	"US Democrat" 	Libertarian
Alternative 	Feminine Eros 	Higher Logos 	Masculine Thymos 	Thanatos
Leadership Desirehttps://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10869-019-09671-6.pdfhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/performance-values-matrix-adrian-boothman-jp 	Relational - Manage & Move 	Platonic - Praise & Raise 	Charismatic - Fire Fast 	Task-Oriented - Remediate & Separate
===Strauss-Howe Analogue to the CSR Theory===
Strauss-Howe Analogue 	Artist 	Prophet 	Nomad 	Hero
Reputation As Child 	placid 	spirited 	bad 	good
Coming of Age 	unfulfilling 	sanctifying 	alienating 	empowering
Primary Focus Coming of Age 	inter-dependency 	inner-world 	self-sufficiency 	outer-world
Young Adulthood 	improving 	reflecting 	competing 	building
Transition in Midlife 	conformist to experimental 	detached to judgmental 	frenetic to exhausted 	energetic to hubristic
Leadership Style Entering Elderhood	pluralistic, indecisive 	righteous, austere 	solitary, pragmatic 	collegial, expansive
Reputation as Elder 	sensitive 	wise 	tough 	powerful
Treatment as Elder 	liked 	respected 	abandoned 	rewarded
How it is Nurtured 	overprotective 	relaxing 	under-protective 	tightening
How it Nurtures 	under-protective 	tightening 	overprotective 	relaxing
Positive Reputation 	caring, open-minded, expert	principled, resolute, creative	savvy, practical, perceptive	selfless, rational, competent
=== Correlation with the Racepill and Ethnic Theory of Attraction ===
See Ethnic Theory of Attraction, Ethnicel and Racepill for more information.
===Questions for the reader===
#Is this why Boomers are more likely to use inceldom and joblessness as an insult?
#Is this why r/WhereAreAllTheGoodMenhttps://www.reddit.com/r/WhereAreAllTheGoodMen/ are filled with Generation X feminist women?
#Is this why male Millennials are becoming more Chadsexual (Zyzz idolization, "post physique")?
#Is this why Zoomers are feminized (as E-Boys and Femboys) beyond repair, and are more likely to be "Fashy"?
== Sex differences==
Women's sexual strategy is overall slower than men's which is primarily evidenced by their more coy and passive sex drive, lower promiscuity, lower engagement in short-term relationships, more limited reproductive rate, higher neoteny, lower violence, lower activity levels and higher life expectancy. Nonetheless, there is a fair amount of interindividual variation with a minority of women even willingly engaging sex with strangers. Moreover, women paradoxically exhibit fast-life strategies in some regards, especially in that women tend to lose interest in long-term romantic investment much sooner than menhttps://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill#Women_rapidly_lose_interest_in_sex_once_in_a_stable_relationship_or_living_with_a_man and yield nearly the same rate of affairs.http://www.fincham.info/papers/2017-infidelity.pdf
In fact, biochemical research points to a natural four-year sexual cycle for the human female. A woman’s natural tendency is to “liberate” herself from her mate after that point. This is in line with divorce statistics where women are the initiator 75% of the time.https://toqonline.com/archives/v7n2/v7no2_Devlin.pdf (Langley 2005)
Moreover, women mature sooner than men,https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill_(Supplemental)#Women_arrest_in_their_development_sooner_than_men_and_are_thus_more_childlike_and_less_complex with early maturation being a key aspect of fast LH predisposition. This, however, may simply be a result of men selecting for neoteny for paternity assurance or due to women getting easier access to resources by looking cute. Women's lower capacity of forming long-term friendships, as evidenced by their higher rate of gossipy and destructive intrasexual competition,https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill_(Supplemental)#tocTee-Hee is also indicative of a faster life history speed, as such behavior is not aimed at furthering long-term investment and social cohesion.
Other possible female-biased r-vestiges include female rape fantasies, louder moaning (less sexual modesty in that regard), and female exhibitionism.
So, even though women's life history speed is slower in terms of reproductive rate and choosiness, their long-term strategy seems to be actually less r-selected than men's, implying less long-term investment in the offspring and hence less compatible with modern, highly ordered and structured civilization.
This sex difference may also stem from the fact that women have overall been less subject to selective pressures as they may have reproduced twice as often as men. For this reason, women's sexuality may be stuck in a more r-selected past.
Women's tendency to switch mates has also been explained by the mate switching hypothesishttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/306418216_The_mate_switching_hypothesis as a means to ensure a suitable provider and protector all the time, which women are thought to depend on especially in the more ancient, fast ecologies (bodyguard hypothesis). Another explanation could be that modern mating conditions are an evolutionary mismatch due to women being economically independent and liberated such that their hypergamy, choosiness and fickleness becomes more exposed. This is evidenced by the fact that arranged marriage used to be much more prevalent than it is today, so women's own choices may have never been subject to much selection pressure as it was largely overridden by parental choice.
==References==
==See also==
*Reproductive success
*Evolution
*Dark triad
*Whore
*Slut
*Rape
*Borderline personality disorder
*Asshole
*Nice guy