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Those who are smarter live longer - Mouse lemurs that perform better in cognitive tests and displayed more exploratory behavior live longer. If heritable, this can provide the basis for the evolution of cognitive abilities in members of our lineage. (science.org)
submitted 4h ago by mvea
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Author: u/mvea
URL: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf9365

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mvea [OP] 2 points 4h ago
I’ve linked to the primary source, the journal article, in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the press release: https://www.dpz.eu/en/home/single-view/news/wer-schlauer-ist-lebt-laenger.html
PhaedrusC 4 points 3h ago
It is interesting how many people misunderstand how evolution works.

In a cursory skim through the article I found no reference to evolution of cognitive abilities in humans, and, indeed, this would be highly unlikely.

Living longer makes very little difference (or none) to survivability of genes. All the animal has to do is survive to puberty. In lemurs there may be some (small) correlation with survival to breeding age, but in humans there is little to none.

In humans, certainly, cognitive ability and education tend to be negative selectors for procreation, which is generally seen as a major factor in regression to the mean.
panchoop 8 points 1h ago
Slightly disagree:
\- Longer lifespan helps ensure the survivability of the offpring, depending on the parental behavior. This helps pass down genes to the future.


Do you have any reference for "certainly, cognitive ability and education tend to be negative selectors for procreation" ? For me it is not certain, not in evolutionary scales.
Smart-Rip-3733 1 points 9m ago
Yeah and menopause would like a word here. The grandmother helping the daughter has evolutionary consequences. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3433273/
hiraeth555 1 points 15m ago
Is cognitive ability negatively correlated with reproduction in humans in our natural environments? Or only industrialised?

Also doesn’t mean that it doesn’t lead to beneficial selection- fewer, but higher performing offspring is an effective strategy.
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