Relevance of education and intelligence at the national level for health: The case of HIV and AIDS

Relevance of education and intelligence at the national level for health: The case of HIV and AIDS
Heiner Rindermann and Gerhard Meisenberg; 2009


Abstract

Studies at the individual level have shown a negative effect of education and intelligence on risky behavior. The same has been demonstrated for risky sexual behavior and for HIV-infection rates in sub-Saharan Africa. In path analyses at the country data level, cognitive abilities (seen as depending on education) show a strong negative effect on HIV-infection rates, whereas gross domestic product and modernization each has a small positive effect. A higher proportion of Muslims in the population reduces the HIV-infection rate. Explanations for the effect of intelligence include a better understanding of causal relationships between one's behavior and health, greater awareness of future consequences, indirect intelligence effects, a general rationality effect, a civic embeddedness effect, and more competent management of the problem by governments, e.g. through public education programs about HIV transmission and AIDS.

Do testosterone declines during the transition to marriage and fatherhood relate to men's sexual behavior? Evidence from the Philippines

Do testosterone declines during the transition to marriage and fatherhood relate to men's sexual behavior? Evidence from the Philippines
Lee T Gettler et al.; November 2013
Hormones and Behavior


Abstract

Testosterone (T) is thought to help facilitate trade-offs between mating and parenting in humans. Across diverse cultural settings married men and fathers have lower T than other men and couples' sexual activity often declines during the first years of marriage and after having children. It is unknown whether these behavioral and hormonal changes are related. Here we use longitudinal data from a large study in the Philippines (n = 433) to test this model. We show that among unmarried non-fathers at baseline (n = 153; age: 21.5 ± 0.3 years) who became newly married new fathers by follow-up (4.5 years later), those who experienced less pronounced longitudinal declines in T reported more frequent intercourse with their partners at follow-up (p < 0.01) compared to men with larger declines in T. Controlling for duration of marriage, findings were similar for men transitioning from unmarried to married (without children) (p < 0.05). Men who remained unmarried and childless throughout the study period did not show similar T-sexual activity outcomes. Among newly married new fathers, subjects who had frequent intercourse both before and after the transition to married fatherhood had more modest declines in T compared to peers who had less frequent sex (p < 0.001). Our findings are generally consistent with theoretical expectations and cross-species empirical observations regarding the role of T in male life history trade-offs, particularly in species with bi-parental care, and add to evidence that T and sexual activity have bidirectional relationships in human males.

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Conclusion

In sum, we found that newly married new fathers who experienced greater declines in T also reported less frequent sexual intercourse with their partners at follow-up, 4.5 years later. We also showed that men who engaged in frequent sexual activity both before and after becoming married fathers experienced milder declines in T compared to less sexually active men, which suggests that sexual behavior could also have long-term implications for T production. This finding is consistent with the increasingly recognized observation that relationships between hormones and social behavior are likely reciprocal, rather than uni-directional. To our knowledge, these results are the first longitudinal evidence relating marriage/fatherhood-driven T decreases to men's sexual behavior.

Race versus social class differences in sexual behavior:

Race versus social class differences in sexual behavior: A follow-up test of the View the MathML source dimension
J. Philippe Rushton and Anthony F Bogaert; September 1988
Journal of Research in Personality


Abstract

Following our earlier paper on race differences in sexual behavior (J. P. Rushton & A. F. Bogaert,  1987,Journal of Research in Personality, 21, 529–551), we analyze additional data from the Institute for Sex Research which indicates that in terms of sexual restraint, college-educated whites non-college-educated whites college-educated blacks on measures such as speed of occurrence of premarital, marital, and extramarital sexual experiences, number of sexual partners, frequency of intercourse, speed and incidence of pregnancy, and rapidity of the menstrual cycle. As such, the data suggest that race may be a more powerful predictor of sexual behavior than educational level or social class. This ordering was predicted from a gene-based evolutionary theory of  r / K reproductive strategies in which a trade-off occurs between gamete production and social behaviors such as intelligence, law-abidingness, and parental care.

Personality and Unrestricted Sexual Behavior: Correlations of Sociosexuality in Caucasian and Asian College Students

Personality and Unrestricted Sexual Behavior: Correlations of Sociosexuality in Caucasian and Asian College Students
Tiffany M Wright, Steven P Reise; June 1997
Journal of Research in Personality


Abstract

The goal of this study was to explore if and how personality characteristics are associated with sociosexuality (i.e., individual differences in the willingness to engage in sex outside the context of a committed relationship). Toward this end, we used correlation, multiple regression, and path analysis to examine the associations of sociosexuality with: (1) the normal-range personality traits of the five-factor model, (2) a sexual attitude\affect dimension called erotophobia-erotophilia, and (3) ego development. The sample consisted of 350 Asian and Caucasian college students. Our final path model indicated that, regardless of ethnicity, extroversion, low agreeableness, and erotophilia were direct predictors of unrestricted sociosexuality. Furthermore, openness was an indirect predictor of sociosexuality through its association with erotophilia. However, our final path model also included ethnic differences. Specifically, in the Caucasian sample low agreeableness and openness were significant predictors of erotophilia, but in the Asian sample low neuroticism and openness combined to predict erotophilia. Finally, an interaction was observed between ethnicity and ego development in predicting unrestricted sociosexuality. For our Caucasian sample, increases in ego development were negatively correlated with unrestricted sociosexuality, while for Asians, increasing levels of ego development were not associated with sociosexuality. In other words, as ego development increases, Caucasians become more like Asians in that they are more sexually constrained or restricted. In the conclusion, we offer explanations of the results and discuss findings in terms of several theories of human sexual behavior.

[Speculative thoughts about these findings: A very interesting finding. Historically, East Asians and Caucasians had roughly the same intelligence level (especially if you consider the dysgenic fertility patterns of European populations over the last 150 years), but maybe European populations, especially northwest European populations were evolutionarily more selected for a "free will", for "ego strength" and for moral idealistic beliefs (and I think these are the causes for European creativity).  So to say (healthy) ego development causes sexual restricted behavior in Caucasians, but not in Asians, because in the "Caucasian mind" the self or the ego plays a more important part than in the "Asian mind" and sexual restricted behavior of Asians is mainly caused by other mechanisms.]