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Slowing life history (K) can account for increasing micro-innovation rates and GDP growth, but not macro-innovation rates, which declined following the end of the Industrial Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2019

Michael A. Woodley of Menie ,
Aurelio José Figueredo  and
Matthew A. Sarraf
Michael A. Woodley of Menie
Affiliation:
Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1160 Brussels, BelgiumMichael.Woodley@vub.ac.behttps://www.vub.be/CLEA/cgi-bin/homepage.cgi?email=michael.woodley03%5bat%5dgmail.com Unz Foundation Junior Fellow, Palo Alto, CA 94301
Aurelio José Figueredo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721ajf@u.arizona.eduhttps://psychology.arizona.edu/users/aurelio-figueredo
Matthew A. Sarraf
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher.mas626@cornell.edu
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Abstract

Baumard proposes that life history slowing in populations over time is the principal driver of innovation rates. We show that this is only true of micro-innovation rates, which reflect cognitive and economic specialization as an adaptation to high population density, and not macro-innovation rates, which relate more to a population's level of general intelligence.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e213
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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