J. Philippe Rushton: A Life History Perspective by Edward Dutton

Here are some excerpts:

* From the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century almost all biologists and anthropologists accepted that the human species could be divided into biologically distinct races. Since around 1900, anthropology in Western Europe and the USA has gradually moved from being a branch of biology concerned with the physical and social evolution of humans, to a highly ideologically driven discipline strongly influenced influenced by dogmas such as cultural determinism (that ‘culture’ explains all population differences in behavior), cultural relativism (that all cultures are equally valuable and have their own truths), and postmodernism (that ‘truth’ is subjective and merely the ideology of the powerful and we must deconstruct their ‘truth’ and promote the marginalized) (see Dutton, 2012).

* Rushton and Templer (2012) found that among human sub-species and animal sub-species darker pigmentation was associated with higher levels of aggression and higher levels of sexual activity. Moreover, even within human races (such as when comparing siblings) darker siblings tended to be more aggressive and sexually active as well as less intelligent than lighter siblings.

* Analyzing a large data set of life-history variables on 234 mammalian species, Rushton (2004) found further evidence for his K factor. He discovered that brain size correlates 0.70 with longevity (0.59, after controlling for body weight and body length). His analysis revealed a single r–K life-history factor with loadings such as: brain weight (0.85), longevity (0.91), gestation time (0.86), birth weight (0.62), litter size (-0.54), age at first mating (0.73), duration of lactation (0.67), body weight (0.61), and body length (0.63).

* Rushton (2004) observes that in 1930, people in the lowest social class in the UK had a 23% higher chance of dying at every age than people in the highest social class, with ‘social class’ a proxy for socioeconomic status. By 1970, this excess risk had grown to 61%. In 1980 it had jumped to 150%.

* A General Factor of Personality (GFP) has now been extracted from over 24 different personality inventories (Rushton & Irwing, 2011) and is predicted to exist in others (Woodley & Bell, 2011). Dutch psychologist Dimitri Van der Linden and his colleagues (2010) have found that the GFP is robust to meta-analysis and Rushton and English psychologist Paul Irwing (2011) have found that it has a heritability of about 0.5. The GFP can be defined as a mix of socially desirable traits. It is composed of high scores on the Big 5 personality characteristics Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Openness and low scores on Neuroticism. This is the K personality… that GFP did indeed correlate positively with national average IQ.

* There is evidence that large-breasted women are relatively low in Conscientiousness, that is, they are relative r-strategists (see Dutton, 2018; Steiner, 1980). In a K-context, males would be more likely to pass on their genes by investing in good mothers. Accordingly, they would need to trade physical characteristics for psychological ones, meaning it would make more sense to actually be attracted to smaller breasts.

* …Simonton (2009) has observed that the closer to mathematics a scientific discipline moves, the lower is the level of mental instability among the most influential and creative practitioners of that discipline.

* The ‘male brain’ is focused on systemizing: analyzing the variables in a system, working out its rules, and creating systems to make sense of novel situations. This, it appears, would make males inclined towards or adept at the hypothetico-deductive method, generally considered the essence of the scientific method. The ‘female brain’ is less focused on this and instead is more focused on ‘empathizing’: identifying another person’s emotions and thoughts and working out the best way to respond to them.

* Despite higher levels of average intelligence and K than Caucasians, Northeast Asian levels of cultural achievement are clearly lower. They have never innovated an Industrial Revolution, despite having higher average intelligence than the Europeans, who did. Japanese economist Kenya Kura and colleagues (2015) have argued that a probable explanation is Northeast Asians’ extremely high levels of social anxiety. This allows them to develop a highly cooperative group, crucial in the harsh ecology to which they are evolved. But it also renders them very low in inquisitiveness, openness to new ideas, curiosity . . . indeed any behavioural tendency that might ‘rock the boat.’

* Rushton’s model doesn’t work in terms of Neuroticism either. This is ‘mental instability’ so we would expect Northeast Asians to be lowest in it. In fact, they are highest in it and black people are lowest in it (e.g. Eap et al., 2008). The reason for this appears to be the importance of social anxiety – a trait which comes under the umbrella of Neuroticism – in high K societies. In such societies, in their harsh ecology, you are more likely to survive if you can form a highly cooperative group and you will die quickly if you are cast out of this group. So it pays to be socially anxious, seemingly to the extent that this overwhelms other aspects of anxiety, leading to a higher score overall.

* American medic Beth Auslander and her team (2009) conducted a study of 202 American girls aged between 14 and 21 (26% white, 43% black and 31% Hispanic) and found that black girls were significantly less likely than white or Hispanic girls to have ever had oral sex and, if they had had it, they were significantly older when they had it for the first time than whites or Hispanics were. There were no racial differences in terms of the prevalence of anal sex. American medic Gypsyamber D’Souza et al. (2014) have also found that whites are more likely than Mexicans to have ever had oral sex while blacks are the least likely. These studies also replicated an earlier study (Smith et al., 1985) which had found that while white adolescents progressed through a predictable pattern of kissing, above the waist touching and then below the waist touching before engaging in coitus, black adolescents engaged in very little behaviour of this kind and quickly advanced to sex. Follow-up studies found that anal and oral sex were less frequent among blacks than among whites and that oral sex was first initiated at a much later age than among whites, despite vaginal sex having occurred at a much earlier age (Ompad et al., 2006 or Evans et al., 1998). Interestingly, a study of black-white sex behaviour differences which controlled for SES found little difference in oral sex prevalence between blacks and whites (Samuels, 1997). In that SES can be seen as an expression of Differential K, this is as we would expect; it shows that oral sex is associated with a K-strategy.

* Younger siblings tend to display more fast Life History and Narcissistic traits than older siblings. The youngest sibling, of three, has been found to be most likely to be a writer (especially of autobiography), in addition to having the highest self-esteem and the greatest desire to be unique (Szobiova, 2008). …those who write autobiographies tend to be Narcissistic, believing that their lives are so interesting that people will want to read about them (Mendelsohn, 25th January 2010).

About Luke Ford

I've written five books (see Amazon.com). My work has been covered in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and on 60 Minutes. I teach Alexander Technique in Beverly Hills (Alexander90210.com).
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