r/K selection & abortions

[shkrobius]

I've mentioned that in the US, the abortion rate among black women is > 4 times this rate for white women; the rate for Hispanics is also much higher. If one looks at the historical trends for, say, teenage girls, the ratio of abortion to birth rates for Blacks and Hispanics stayed virtually constant since 1990. Eg

Comments

[vdinets]

I still think it's mostly cultural differences than biological. Separating cultural evolution from biological one is very difficult here. Besides, I am not convinced that K-types are currently favored by biological evolution, considering that poor people still have more children than the rich. To me it seems that the traits currently favored by biological evolution are the inability to properly put on a condom and the tendency to be deeply religious.

[vdinets]

In any case, biological evolution simply cannot be fast enough to account for rising IQ scores.

[poltorazhyda]

if you're talking about the Flynn effect, those scores are rising across the board, regardless of race, so the gap is unaffected

[vdinets]

That's not clear: some papers claim that Blacks are closing the gap, others say they do not.

[bzeev]

Interesting. A problem in search of a solution.

[vdinets]

If you look at a map showing income levels, the solution will become obvious :-)

[bzeev]

That is quite possible, albeit this solution reminds me about a chicken and an egg problem.

[nassims]

it may still be the ripple effect of the previous generation legacy - it would be interesting to cross-reference the abortion rate with the education level and income of these teenagers parents AND grandparents. I think (and hope) we are getting close to the phase shift where this imprinting effect (and I think it's possible that there is an imprint) wears off.

[shkrobius]

The surprising thing is how difficult it is to find any good data at all, eg the abortion rates for each race adjusted by income and education. I expected to find a lot of research, I found almost none. I think I follow your line of reasoning, but a while ago both income and education were low for nearly everyone. Then income and education have nontrivial effect on abortion rates for Blacks. Take a look at the link I gave if you have access to Springer journals. If not, I can e-mail you the PDF file on Monday, as I do not have the access from home.

[nassims]

well, my PhD supervisor was a 6th child in a family of 7 kids. They were a poor Irish family that immigrated to Canada (parents had formal education, though). All children are now doing very well, from what I've heard. Their family sizes are also typical for North American and European whites. And that happened in just one generation. I think the natural course will take care of all the current differences between Blacks and Whites in USA, we just have to be patient.

Thanks for the paper - I have access, so a link should be good.