Blanchard Alyson, Keenan Greg
School of Health and Society, University of Salford, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK.
School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
Int J Psychol. 2025 Aug;60(4):e70082. doi: 10.1002/ijop.70082.
Life-history theory (LHT) charts the relationship of environmental conditions to resource allocation trade-offs made by organisms to either reproduce or invest in somatic maintenance. Hazardous environments in which resources are unreliable should prompt adoption of a "fast" life-history strategy in which short-term gains are favoured. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to examine whether an increase in existential threat as signalled by a shift in environmental status impacted people's decision making in LHT-relevant domains. In this online psychometric study (N = 274 individuals), we examined whether concerns about COVID-19 mediated the relationship between life-history strategy and the desire to have or have more children, and stockpiling food and household groceries. Contrasting results emerged. COVID-19 concern mediated the relationship between LHS and stockpiling food and household groceries but not LHS and reproduction. These findings highlight potential differences in decision consequences or the type of shift in environmental conditions needed to prompt particular responses.
生活史理论（LHT）描绘了环境条件与生物体为繁殖或投资于身体维持而进行的资源分配权衡之间的关系。资源不可靠的危险环境应促使采用“快速”生活史策略，即优先考虑短期收益。新冠疫情提供了一个机会，来检验环境状态转变所表明的生存威胁增加是否影响了人们在与生活史理论相关领域的决策。在这项在线心理测量研究中（N = 274人），我们研究了对新冠疫情的担忧是否介导了生活史策略与生育或生育更多子女的愿望以及囤积食品和家庭杂货之间的关系。出现了不同的结果。对新冠疫情的担忧介导了生活史策略与囤积食品和家庭杂货之间的关系，但未介导生活史策略与生育之间的关系。这些发现凸显了决策后果的潜在差异，或促使特定反应所需的环境条件转变类型的差异。
