School of Public Health, University of California, 50 University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Am J Hum Biol. 2010 May-Jun;22(3):396-400. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.21011.
Most research describing the biological response to unemployment appears appropriately motivated by clinical or public health concerns and focuses on death, disease, and medical care. We argue that expanding the work to include other outcomes could contribute to basic science. As an example, we use the response to mass layoffs to discriminate between two explanations of low ratios of male to female live births in stressed populations. One explanation asserts that ambient stressors reduce the ratio of males to females conceived. The other argues that the maternal stress response selects against males in utero. We show that selection in utero better explains the observed data. We conclude that human adaptation to the economic environment deserves scrutiny from a wider array of scientists than it now receives.
大多数描述失业对生物影响的研究似乎都是出于临床或公共卫生方面的考虑，并侧重于死亡、疾病和医疗保健。我们认为，将工作范围扩大到包括其他结果可以为基础科学做出贡献。例如，我们利用大规模裁员的反应来区分两种解释：在承受压力的人群中，男性与女性出生率的比例较低的原因。一种解释认为，环境压力因素降低了受孕胎儿中男性与女性的比例。另一种观点认为，母体的应激反应会导致男性胎儿在子宫内流产。我们发现，子宫内的选择可以更好地解释所观察到的数据。我们的结论是，人类对经济环境的适应应该受到比现在更多样化的科学家的关注。
