Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Paternal Age is Negatively Associated with Religious Behavior in a Post-60s But Not a Pre-60s US Birth Cohort: Testing a Prediction from the Social Epistasis Amplification Model

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Religion and Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Participation in social behaviors that enhance group-level fitness may be influenced by mutations that affect patterns of social epistasis in human populations. Mutations that cause individuals to not participate in these behaviors may weaken the ability of members of a group to coordinate and regulate behavior, which may in turn negatively affect fitness. To investigate the possibility that de novo mutations degrade these adaptive social behaviors, we examine the effect of paternal age (as a well-established proxy for de novo mutation load) on one such social behavior, namely religious observance, since religiosity may be a group-level cultural adaptation facilitating enhanced social coordination. Using two large samples (Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and AddHealth), each of a different US birth cohort, paternal age was used to hierarchically predict respondent’s level of church attendance after controlling for multiple covariates. The effect is absent in WLS (β = .007, ns, N = 4560); however, it is present in AddHealth (β = − .046, p < .05, N = 4873) increasing the adjusted model R2 by .005. The WLS respondents were (mostly) born in the 1930s, whereas the AddHealth respondents were (mostly) born in the 1970s. This may indicate that social-epistatic regulation of behavior has weakened historically in the USA, which might stem from and enhance the ability for de novo mutations to influence behavior among more recently born cohorts—paralleling the secular rise in the heritability of age at sexual debut after the sexual revolution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. It should be noted that the reality of group selection is a controversial matter (see Bahar 2018). Nevertheless, some of the most quantitatively sophisticated evolutionary theorists of recent times have provided a great deal of support for the view that group selection does operate, or at least has operated, in human populations (e.g., Bowles and Gintis 2011; Jones 2018; see also: Salter and Harpending 2013). Individual and gene-level selection theorists who oppose group-selection theories have failed to provide any compelling basis on which to doubt the results of such research, so we freely avail ourselves of the concept of group selection.

  2. For molecular-genetic evidence of mutation accumulation in some European populations over many thousands of years, see Aris-Brosou (2019). But note that there is little reason to think that relaxed selection is relevant to the mutation accumulation detected except for that in “recent times” (Aris-Brosou 2019, p. 7), as mutation-accumulation theories stressing the role of industrialization would predict.

References

  • Aris-Brosou, S. (2019). Direct evidence of an increasing mutational load in humans. Molecular Biology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz192.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Arslan, R. C., Willführ, K. P., Frans, E., Verweij, K. J., Myrskylä, M., Voland, E., et al. (2017). Older fathers’ children have lower evolutionary fitness across four centuries and in four populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 284, 20171562.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bachmann, S. O., Cross, E., Kalbassi, S., Sarraf, M. A., Woodley of Menie, M. A., & Baudouin, S. J. (2018). Protein pheromone MUP20/Darcin is a vector and target of indirect genetic effects in mice. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/265769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bahar, S. (2018). The essential tension: Competition, cooperation and multilevel selection in evolution. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baud, A., Mulligan, M. K., Casale, F. P., Ingels, J. F., Bohl, C. J., & Stegle, O. (2017). Genetic variation in the social environment contributes to health and disease. PLoS Genetics, 13, e1006498.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard, T. J., Jr. (2004). Genetic influence on human psychological traits. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 148–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (2011). A cooperative species: Human reciprocity and its evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, M., & Ellison, C. (2008). Do genetic factors influence religious life? Findings from a behavior genetic analysis of twin siblings. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47, 529–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chou, H. G., & Elison, S. (2014). Impact of birth order on religious behaviors among college students raised by highly religious Mormon parents. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 36, 105–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cross, E. S. R. (2019). Investigation of social olfaction in a Neuroligin 3 Knockout mouse model. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, UK.

  • Dillon, M. (2003). Handbook of the sociology of religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Domingue, B. W., & Belsky, D. W. (2017). The social genome: Current findings and implications for the study of human genetics. PLoS Genetics, 13, e1006615.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Domingue, B. W., Belsky, D. W., Fletcher, J. M., Conley, D., Boardman, J. D., & Harris, K. M. (2018). The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 115, 702–707.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • D’Onofrio, B. M., Rickert, M. E., Frans, E., Kuja-Halkola, R., Almqvist, C., Sjölander, A., et al. (2014). Paternal age at childbearing and offspring psychiatric and academic morbidity. JAMA Psychiatry, 71, 432.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dunkel, C. S., Reeve, C. L., Woodley of Menie, M. A., & van der Linden, D. (2015). A comparative study of the general factor of personality in Jewish and non-Jewish populations. Personality and Individual Differences, 78, 63–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunne, M., Martin, N., Statham, D., Slutske, W., Dinwiddie, S., Bucholz, K., et al. (1997). Genetic and environmental contributions to variance in age at first sexual intercourse. Psychological Science, 8, 211–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, E., Madison, G., & Dunkel, C. (2018). The mutant says in his heart, “There is no God”: The rejection of collective religiosity centred around the worship of moral Gods is associated with high mutation load. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 4, 233–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, E., te Nijenhuis, J., Metzen, D., van der Linden, D., & Madison, G. (in press). The myth of the stupid believer: The negative religiousness-IQ nexus is not on general intelligence (g) and is likely a product of the relations between IQ and Autism Spectrum traits. Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00926-3.

  • Dutton, E., & van der Linden, D. (2015). Who are the “Clever Sillies”? The intelligence, personality, and motives of clever silly originators and those who follow them. Intelligence, 49, 57–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, L., Hoskin, A. W., & Ratnasingam, M. (2016). Testosterone, risk taking, and religiosity: Evidence from two cultures. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 55, 153–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faria, F. N. (2017). Is market liberalism adaptive? Rethinking F. A. Hayek on moral evolution. Journal of Bioeconomics, 19, 307–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fieder, M., & Huber, S. (2015). Paternal age predicts offspring chances of marriage and reproduction. American Journal of Human Biology, 27, 339–343.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Figueredo, A. J., Vásquez, G., Brumbach, B. H., & Schneider, S. M. (2007). The K-factor, covitality, and personality. Human Nature, 18, 47–73.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forbes, C. E., & Grafman, J. (2010). The role of the human prefrontal cortex in social cognition and moral judgment. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 33, 299–324.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giosan, C. (2006). High-K strategy scale: A measure of the high-K independent criterion of fitness. Evolutionary Psychology, 4, 394–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorsuch, R. L. (1983). Factor analysis (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henneberg, M., & Saniotis, A. (2009). Evolutionary origins of human brain and spirituality. Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 67, 427–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herd, P., Carr, D., & Roan, C. (2014). Cohort profile: Wisconsin longitudinal study (WLS). International Journal of Epidemiology, 43, 34–41.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Huber, S., & Fieder, M. (2014). Advanced paternal age is associated with lower facial attractiveness. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35, 298–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jack, A. I., Friedman, J. P., Boyatzis, R. E., & Taylor, S. N. (2016). Why do you believe in God? Relationships between religious belief, analytic thinking, mentalizing and moral concern. PLoS ONE, 11, e0149989.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. (2018). Kin selection and ethnic group selection. Evolution and Human Behavior, 39, 9–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalbassi, S., Bachmann, S. O., Cross, E., Roberton, V. H., & Baudouin, S. J. (2017). Male and female mice 14 lacking Neuroligin-3 modify the behavior of their wild-type littermates. eNeuro, 4, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kendler, K. S., & Myers, J. (2009). A developmental twin study of church attendance and alcohol and nicotine consumption: A model for analyzing the changing impact of genes and environment. American Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 1150–1155.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koenig, H. (2012). Religion, spirituality, and health: The research and clinical implications. ISRN Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/278730.

  • Kondrashov, A. S. (2017). Crumbling genome: The impact of deleterious mutations on humans. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kutner, M., Nachtsheim, C., Neter, J., & Li, W. (2005). Applied linear statistical models (5th ed.). Irwin, CA: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lalumiere, M. L., Blanchard, R., & Zucker, K. J. (2000). Sexual orientation and handedness in men and women: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 575–592.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LaPiere, R. (1934). Attitudes and actions. Social Forces, 13, 230–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Linksvayer, T. A. (2007). Ant species differences determined by epistasis between brood and worker genomes. PLoS ONE, 2, e994.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. (2016). Mutation and human exceptionalism: Our future genetic load. Genetics, 202, 869–875.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, K. B. (1994). A people that shall dwell alone: Judaism as a group evolutionary strategy. Westport, CT: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meisenberg, G., Rindermann, H., Patel, H., & Woodley, M. A. (2012). Is it smart to believe in God? The relationship of religiosity with education and intelligence. Temas em Psicologia, 20, 101–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michaelson, J. J., Shi, Y., Gujral, M., Zheng, H., Malhotra, D., et al. (2012). Whole-genome sequencing in autism identifies hot spots for de novo germline mutation. Cell, 151, 1431–1442.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Moorjani, P. G., Gao, Z., & Przeworski, M. (2016). Human germline mutation and the erratic evolutionary clock. PLoS Biology, 14, e2000744.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Norenzayan, A., Gervais, W. M., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2012). Mentalizing deficits constrain belief in a personal God. PLoS ONE, 7, e36880.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Norenzayan, A., & Sharif, A. (2008). The origin and evolution of religious pro-sociality. Science, 322, 58–62.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norenzayan, A., Shariff, A. F., Gervais, W. M., Willard, A. K., McNamara, R. A., Slingerland, E., et al. (2016). The cultural evolution of prosocial religions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pew Research Center. (2015). Religious Landscape Study: Attendance at religious services by race/ethnicity. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/compare/attendance-at-religious-services/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/. May 11.

  • Pietschnig, J., & Voracek, M. (2015). One century of global IQ gains: A formal meta-analysis of the Flynn effect (1909–2013). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 282–306.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piurko, Y., Schwartz, S. H., & Davidov, E. (2011). Basic personal values and the meaning of left-right political orientations in 20 countries. Political Psychology, 32, 537–561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rindermann, H. (2018). Cognitive capitalism: Human capital and the wellbeing of nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rühli, F., & Henneberg, M. (2017). Biological future of humankind—Ongoing evolution and the impact of recognition of human biological variation. In M. Tibayrenc & F. J. Ayala (Eds.), On human nature: Biology, psychology, ethics, politics, and religion (pp. 263–275). London: Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Salter, F. K., & Harpending, H. (2013). J.P. Rushton’s theory of ethnic nepotism. Personality and Individual Differences, 55, 256–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarraf, M. A., & Woodley of Menie, M. A. (2017). Of mice and men: Empirical support for the population-based social epistasis amplification model (a comment on Kalbassi et al., 2017). ENeuro, 4, e.0280–17.2017.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarraf, M. A., Woodley of Menie, M. A., & Feltham, C. (2019). Modernity and cultural decline: A biobehavioral perspective. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (2015). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings (3rd ed.). New York: SAGE Publications Inc.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sela, Y., Shackelford, T., & Liddle, J. (2015). When religion makes it worse: Religiously motivated violence as a sexual selection weapon. In D. Sloane & J. Van Slyke (Eds.), The attraction of religion: A new evolutionary psychology of religion (pp. 111–132). London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmel, G. (1957). Fashion. American Journal of Sociology, 62, 541–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sulloway, F. J. (1998). Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics, and creative lives. London, UK: Abacus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teseo, S., Châline, N., Jaisson, P., & Kronauer, D. J. C. (2014). Epistasis between adults and larvae underlies caste fate and fitness in a clonal ant. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4363.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turchin, P. (2016). Ages of discord: A structural-demographic analysis of American history. Chaplin, CT: Beresta Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Twenge, J. M., Honeycutt, N., Prislin, R., & Sherman, R. A. (2016). More polarized but more independent: Political party identification and ideological self-categorization among U.S. adults, college students, and late adolescents, 1970–2015. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 1364–1383.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, D. S. (2002). Darwin’s cathedral: Evolution, religion, and the nature of society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Woodley of Menie, M. A., & Kanazawa, S. (2017). Paternal age negatively predicts offspring attractiveness in two, large, nationally representative datasets. Personality and Individual Differences, 106, 217–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodley of Menie, M. A., Saraff, M., Pestow, R., & Fernandes, H. B. F. (2017). Social epistasis amplifies the fitness costs of deleterious mutations, engendering rapid fitness decline among modernized populations. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 3, 181–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M., Li, C., & Lin, S. (2019). The negative intelligence–religiosity relation: New and confirming evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219879122.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Michael A. Woodley of Menie

  2. Unz Foundation, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Michael A. Woodley of Menie

  3. School of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Satoshi Kanazawa

  4. Independent Researcher, Aarhus, Denmark

    Jonatan Pallesen

  5. University of Rochester, New York, NY, USA

    Matthew A. Sarraf

Authors
  1. Michael A. Woodley of Menie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Satoshi Kanazawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jonatan Pallesen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Matthew A. Sarraf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael A. Woodley of Menie.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Woodley of Menie, M.A., Kanazawa, S., Pallesen, J. et al. Paternal Age is Negatively Associated with Religious Behavior in a Post-60s But Not a Pre-60s US Birth Cohort: Testing a Prediction from the Social Epistasis Amplification Model. J Relig Health 59, 2733–2752 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-00987-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-00987-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation