How long do you think you’ll live? (it’s not just an idle inquiry)

Research out of Queen’s University in Canada maintains that major life decisions – e.g., marriage, divorce, having children, pursuing educational degrees – may be subconsciously guided by perceived mortality, that is, how long you think that you’re going to live.  For decades it’s been known that perceived mortality is a strong predictor of actual mortality, but the Queen’s University research now indicates that it may influence much more.

Lead researcher Daniel Krupp, as quoted in the Global News, explained: “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.” In the study, Krupp, a research psychologist and biologist by training, controlled for measures of affluence and income. And he found no statistical difference between men’s and women’s decisions.

Krupp’s research speaks to a branch of evolutionary theory known as “life history theory” which predicts behavior based on age.  In a piece written for psychcentral.com, Rick Nauert explained: “This theory has been used to explain animal behaviors that schedule key events to produce the largest possible number of surviving offspring (for example the famous run of the Pacific salmon).” When applied to humans, 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.

So if our subconscious is influencing our decisions, what factors do we consider? Some prominent questions include: how healthy are we? Do we have a risky job? Are my parents or grandparents still alive? Is there a history of disease in the family?

And the larger question: are these innate, subconscious signals?

Said Krupp: “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.

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