Ancestral mechanisms in modern environments

article

2008

Human Nature

19

1

103

117

It is commonly assumed that the desire for a thin female physique and its pathological expression in eating disorders result from a social pressure for thinness. However, such widespread behavior may be better understood not merely as the result of arbitrary social pressure, but as an exaggerated expression of behavior that may have once been adaptive. The reproductive suppression hypothesis suggests that natural selection shaped a mechanism for adjusting female reproduction to socioecological conditions by altering the amount of body fat. In modern Western culture, social and ecological cues, which would have signaled the need for temporary postponement of reproduction in ancestral environments, may now be experienced to an unprecedented intensity and duration.

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=a...

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-008-9030-8

10.1007/s12110-008-9030-8

1045-6767

Final article published

Adaptation
Anorexic behavior
Eating disorders
Environment
Reproductive suppression

Eating disorders in women
Anorexia nervosa
Women--Identity
Social pressure
Social influence
Feminine beauty (Aesthetics)
Reproductive health

Springer

Peer reviewed

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© 2008. Springer. Human Nature.