The evolution of innovation and economic complexity: Four-factor model of intelligence, adolescent fertility, population density, and atmospheric cold

The evolution of innovation and economic complexity. Severi Luoto. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: Evolution causes biological diversity through adaptation to environmental conditions. With a dataset comprising 122 nations, I explored ecological and demographic predictors of global variation in innovation and economic complexity. The results show that economic complexity is higher in countries with colder winters (r = .58, p < .00001), an effect mediated almost completely by intelligence. Economic complexity is constrained by population-level adolescent fertility rates (r = −.75, p < .00001), showing a tradeoff between early reproduction and investment into economic development and innovation. Population density is another demographic variable that significantly predicts global variation in economic complexity (r = .27, p < .003). A four-factor model of intelligence, adolescent fertility, population density, and atmospheric cold demands predicts 64% of global variation in economic complexity in 1995 and 72% of the variation in 2016. With the exception of adolescent fertility rate, these results remain robust even after controlling for per capita GDP, population size, and trade distance from Europe. This research sheds light on the ways in which evolutionary processes shape human adaptation to local environments. The results indicate that these adaptive processes occur both at the level of psychological traits (intelligence, innovative capacity) and realised behaviours, indexed by global variation in reproductive timing, innovation, and economic complexity.

Check also Response to Commentaries: Life History Genetics, Fluid Intelligence, and Extended Phenotypes. S Luoto. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, March 2019, Volume 5, Issue 1, pp 112–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-018-0103-6

and An Updated Theoretical Framework for Human Sexual Selection: from Ecology, Genetics, and Life History to Extended Phenotypes. Severi Luoto. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/12/sexual-selection-typically-centers-on.html