TORONTO – The major decisions we make in life – from getting married to having kids to getting a divorce – may be influenced by subconscious thoughts of how long we think we’ll live, new Canadian research suggests.
A study out of Queen’s University published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour examined Statistics Canada data to see if life expectancy and health shaped important life decisions.
“I found precisely what I was looking for: as life expectancy increased, people married and began reproducing later. They were also more likely to divorce or have an abortion, and they invested more in their own education,” lead researcher Dr. Daniel Krupp told Global News.
“All of this suggests that the effects of life expectancy on behaviour are fascinatingly intertwined.”
Krupp, a research psychologist and biologist by training, specializes in the study of evolution and the psychology of cooperation and conflict, primarily in humans.
Krupp’s study was also controlled for measures of affluence and income.
His research points to a branch of evolutionary theory known as “life history theory,” which predicts behaviour depending on the ages of people. The theory suggests that those who anticipate living longer delay milestones such as marriage and having babies, and instead invest more time in school. Those who believed their lives are shorter may be less likely to divorce since there’s limited time to find a new partner.
Canadians are living longer lives, with those born between 2006 and 2008 reaching a life expectancy of 80.9 years, according to latest Statistics Canada figures.
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Canadians living in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec are living longer lives compared to the national average with B.C. residents hitting the highest life expectancy at 81.4 years.
The lowest life expectancy at birth was recorded in the three territories combined where life expectancy at birth was 75.2 years.
Across the country, there is an upward trend of seniors living longer continued, the federal agency reported.
Krupp notes that Canadians may be making choices that are in line with a belief that they’re living longer, but experiments need to be conducted to test for whether certain cues are what trigger specific decisions.
Right now, researchers aren’t aware of the life expectancy cues people use and if these are innate, subconscious signals.
“It is possible that an increase in life expectancy will lead to a continued increase in the ages of marriage and reproduction . . . however it is also possible that these effects will weaken beyond a certain point,” Krupp said.
He said his results did not show a difference between men’s and women’s decisions.
His next steps include manipulating cues of life expectancy – conscious or subconscious – to see if it affects attitudes and preferences when it comes to reproduction, marriage and education.
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