Fast, but not so furious. On the distinctiveness of a fast life history strategy and the common core of aversive traits

Evolutionary Psychology has considered a Fast Life History Strategy (FLHS), denoting an individual’s tendency to invest more resources in proliferation than in child-rearing, to be responsible for the emergence of aversive traits. Empirical evidence for this notion has, however, been inconsistent. In a large sample (N = 869), we tested whether FLHS is an adequate representation of the underlying disposition of aversive traits. To this end, we considered twelve specific aversive traits, and additionally measured and modeled the common core of these traits. We found only weak correlations of FLHS with individual aversive traits as well as with their common core. In sum, the results suggest that the common core of aversive traits is only marginally reflected in FLHS. This research was funded by grants 2277, Research Training Group „Statistical Modeling in Psychology“ (SMiP) and HI 1600/1-2 by the German Research Foundation (DFG). reviewed acceptedVersion