Susanne Huber - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Susanne Huber

Biodemography and social biology, Jun 5, 2023

Frontiers in Psychology, Apr 20, 2023

Introduction: It has been frequently suggested that overall genomic heterozygosity and, particula... more Introduction: It has been frequently suggested that overall genomic heterozygosity and, particularly, heterozygosity of loci on the so-called major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which is responsible for the recognition of foreign substances/ pathogens and the recognition of self and non-self, is associated with better health and better resistance to infections and parasites. It has further been speculated that such a potentially beneficial heterozygosity can be detected through body odor and facial attractiveness. Methods: On the basis of genome wide SNP data (713,014 SNPs) of participants from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we therefore investigated whether homozygosity either on the MHC (measured as inbreeding coefficient) or genome-wide (measured as runs of homozygosity and inbreeding coefficient) is associated with rated facial attractiveness. Results: Although we found that the genome-wide average length of homozygous segments and the genome-wide inbreeding coefficient are significantly negatively associated with some measures of facial attractiveness, if corrected for multiple testing, any significant association was no longer formally significant after correction. In addition, the variance in facial attractiveness explained by the genome wide homozygosity is very low (<0.15%). We did not find any significant association between the inbreeding coefficient on the MHC and facial attractiveness. Discussion: We only find a weak association of genome-wide heterozygosity and facial attractiveness.

Behavior Genetics, 2021

It is long known that inbreeding increases the detrimental effects of recessive sequence variants... more It is long known that inbreeding increases the detrimental effects of recessive sequence variants in “Runs of Homozygosity” (ROHs). However, although the phenotypic association of ROH has been investigated for a variety of traits, the statistical power of the results often remains limited as a sufficiently high number of cases are available for only a restricted number of traits. In the present study, we aim to analyze the association of runs of homozygosity with the trait “in-group ethnic favoritism”. This analysis assumes that if ethnic identity is important for an individual, that individual may tend to marry more frequently within their own group and therefore ROH are expected to increase. We hypothesize that an attitude preferring one’s own ethnic group may be associated with a stronger tendency of inbreeding and, as a result, with more and longer ROHs. Accordingly, we investigated the association between the attitude to someone’s own ethnicity and ROH, using the Wisconsin Long...

Frontiers in Psychology, Jul 11, 2022

RussianX: 2.35). Albeit, we are not able to distinguish the genetic and social heritability on th... more RussianX: 2.35). Albeit, we are not able to distinguish the genetic and social heritability on the basis of our data, only a small heritability for in-group vs. out-group marriage behavior is indicated (∼12% of variance explained).

Evolution and Human Behavior, 2022

Abstract Phenotypic traits in humans are under selection pressure and are still evolving, but the... more Abstract Phenotypic traits in humans are under selection pressure and are still evolving, but the relative importance of these traits remains to be investigated. We therefore analyzed jointly phenotypic traits associated with number of children and having ever been married. This provides insights into the relative contribution of each trait and indicates the potential selection pressure induced by a specific trait relative to others. To shed light on potential selection on the genome level, all analyses include a multivariate polygenic risk score of general cognitive ability. We used the data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a dataset consisting of 4991 men and 5326 women almost all whites, educated at least at A-level. The focus was on the association between age, education level, wages, religious intensity, fathers' age at child's birth, ratings of facial attractiveness, number of siblings of the respondent, as well as the polygenic risk score of general cognitive ability on the following dependent variables: i) number of children, ii) ever being married, and iii) age at first birth. For each factor we additionally examined the relative contribution to the overall variance explained of the dependent variable. Having been married and, thus, mate selection, is the most important determinant for the number of children for both men and women. Wages explain most of the total variance for “ever married”, yet in different directions for men and women, as is also the case for the association between wages and number of children. In both women and men, education explains most of the variance in age at first birth, and the effect is postponing. Furthermore, although the phenotype education is negatively associated with the number of children in both sexes, this holds true for the polygenic risk score for cognitive ability only in men. In addition, in men, the polygenic risk score for cognitive ability also has a positive effect on reproduction due to its positive interaction with wages. Anyhow, with the exception of having ever been married, all other variables explain only a small proportion of the variation in fertility outcomes. Although our results are consistent with the hypothesis that there is selection pressure for rather recently arising traits as education and income, on the basis of our results we are not able to draw any final conclusion on selection.

The spring population density of European sousliks ( Spermophilus citellus) in a suburban area ne... more The spring population density of European sousliks ( Spermophilus citellus) in a suburban area near Vienna, Austria, changed from 60 to 6 individuals/ha from 1991 to 1998. The decline occurred during the active seasons of 1994 and 1995. In order to investigate effects of population density on reproduction we examined ma- le mating effort and success. Male home-range size, intrasexual aggression, mass loss during the mating period, and individual reproductive success changed with population density. Home-range size increased with density de- cline, whereas aggression and mass loss decreased. High densities were characterized by more intense male- male competition and a skewed distribution of mates per male. Mate numbers in low-density situations were nor- mally distributed and all males were able to acquire at least one mate. At low density, all yearling males were reproductively active compared to only 13% in the high-density years. Mature yearlings had lower growth rates than non-r...

The Psychology of Extremism, 2020

Humans show a strong tendency for mating along similar characteristics, leading to a preference f... more Humans show a strong tendency for mating along similar characteristics, leading to a preference for homogamy along several traits. Homogamy has a high prevalence in all human societies and has been demonstrated particularly for ethnicity, religion, political attitude and education. Its most extreme form would obviously be marriages among kin, which would guarantee similarity through genetic relatedness, while increasing the genetic risks for inbreeding. Homogamy is inherently a mechanism to strengthen group cohesion, which at the same time increases social stratification by perpetuating the separation of groups. In modern societies, education has become one of the most important traits of homogamy. Particularly the higher educated tend to marry within their own group, reducing social mobility and making social strata less permeable. Historically, as has been demonstrated for religions, homogamy has always led to strong cooperation within groups but also to separation, hostility and ...

Genetic sex verification has important implications for population studies of freeranging animals... more Genetic sex verification has important implications for population studies of freeranging animals relying on the knowledge of reproductive Status and sex ratio of the animals. In the brown hare (Lepus euroaeus) a continuous population decline has been reported in many European countries (Flux and Angermann 1990). The reason for the decrease is under debate (McLaren et al. 1997; Panek and Kamieniarz 1999; Reynolds and Tapper 1995), and population studies of this Speeles are therefore highly needed. The collection of blood causes stress due to trapping and handling of animals (Jessup 1993) that could affect the Parameters under investigation, particularly in a highly irritable Speeles like the brown hare. Previous studies have demonstrated the po-

In a recent paper, Fieder & Huber (2007) attempt to estimate the 'fitness effect... more In a recent paper, Fieder & Huber (2007) attempt to estimate the 'fitness effects' of parental age differences, to test the hypothesis that age preferences are evolutionarily acquired. The authors use modern data from the Swedish Total Population Registry. In their specifications, ...

ObjectiveTo understand marriage patterns, homogamy and fertility of women of European ancestry in... more ObjectiveTo understand marriage patterns, homogamy and fertility of women of European ancestry in the United States from an evolutionary perspective we aim to investigate if a prevalence for ancestral homogamy exists, the factors influencing a female preference for an ancestral homogamous vs. an heterogamous marriage, if an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriages influences fertility and if there is an inherted component of the tendency to marry homogamously vs. heterogamously. Furthermore we aim to determine the heritability of homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage behaviour.MethodsWe used the census data of 369,121 US women married only once and aged between 46 and 60 years, provided by IPUMS USA (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/). We used linear mixed models to determine associations of the probability of a homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage and the individual fertility of a women. We aimed to estimate the heritability (in our case genetic & parental environment) of marriage b...

Twin Research and Human Genetics, 2021

Using data from the Midlife Development in the USA (MIDUS) sample (3070 men and 3182 women) and t... more Using data from the Midlife Development in the USA (MIDUS) sample (3070 men and 3182 women) and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS; 2240 men and 2346 women), we aimed to investigate whether religious, ethnic and racial in-group preferences as well as religious homogamy are associated with reproductive outcome in terms of number of children. Using data from the MIDUS twin sample, we further estimated the inherited genetic component of in-group attitudes. Additionally, we analyzed the association of ∼50 polygenic scores (PGSs) recently published for the WLS study and in-group attitudes as an indicator of potential pleiotropic effects. We found in both samples that, with one exception, religious though not other in-group attitudes are associated with a higher reproductive outcome. Also, religious homogamy is associated with higher average number of children. The inherited component of all in-group attitudes ranges from ∼21% to 45% (MIDUS twin sample). PGSs associated with religious ...

Supplementary tables S1- S13

It has been discussed in the literature that the presence of kin, particularly the presence of a ... more It has been discussed in the literature that the presence of kin, particularly the presence of a women's own mother or her mother in law, may have fertility effects. We aimed to examine the effects of the presence of a woman's own or her husband's mother in the household on a woman's fertility in terms of number of children on a broad basis by analysing census data of over two million married women aged between 15 and 34 years from 14 countries worldwide. We find that with the exception of Iraq, across all countries, the majority of women live only with their spouse in the household. We further find that the presence of any mother in the household is invariably associated with a significantly lower number of children compared to women living only with their spouse. In addition, in most countries, a woman's number of children is lower if she lives with her own mother as compared to her husband's mother in the household. Number of children is nonlinearly associated with woman's age, the presence of any mother being related with an earlier start of childbearing but a shallower increase in number of children. We speculate that the presence of a mother in the household may slow down woman's reproduction, but also discuss alternative explanations.

American Journal of Human Biology, 2020

Objective: To understand migration from an evolutionary perspective, this phenomenon has so far b... more Objective: To understand migration from an evolutionary perspective, this phenomenon has so far been mainly investigated in animal species. We therefore aim to investigate the potential evolutionary roots of attitudes toward migrants in humans. Methods: We used data from the European Social Survey (n = 83 734), analyzing attitudes toward migrants by performing ordinal mixed models. Results: We found that men have a more restrictive attitude toward migration than women, which increases with age and is stronger with a child in the household. Attitude toward migrants is also more skeptical if migrants have a different ethnicity and are from poorer countries. Increasing education and religiousness are associated with a more positive attitude toward migrants, particularly toward migrants of different ethnicity and from poorer countries. Discussion: Although migration flows are a hallmark of the human species, previous findings suggest that (pre-)historic migration flows were at times accompanied by conflict and violence, while at the same time, they insured survival by allowing cultural exchange and the avoidance of inbreeding. Accordingly, we assume that contemporary attitudes toward migration are rooted in our evolutionary past. We discuss the respective behavioral patterns from an evolutionary perspective, arguing that both-a negative attitude as well as openness-make sense.

Journal of Biosocial Science, 2019

Social cohesion – particularly with regard to the integration of migrants – is primarily measured... more Social cohesion – particularly with regard to the integration of migrants – is primarily measured in terms of education, labour market participation, unemployment, income levels and poverty. When seen from a historical long-term perspective (considering the migrations of Homo sapiens in the past 300,000 years) admixture merged members of diverse groups and forged – in addition to social ties – ‘strong biological ties’ of kinship, proposing that religious heterogamy is a long-term layer of social cohesion. Accordingly, this study investigated, on the basis of more than 600,000 men and women aged 26–35 years from Austria 2001, Germany (West) 1987, Ireland 2011, Portugal 2011, Romania 2011 and Switzerland 2000, which demographic characteristics foster religious heterogamy, controlling for various confounding factors using linear mixed modelling. By far the most important factor explaining religious heterogamy was the share of adherents to an individual’s religious group in their area o...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2018

There is growing evidence that human ideology as well as social and political attitudes also have... more There is growing evidence that human ideology as well as social and political attitudes also have a genetic basis. In case of some genetic predisposition of political attitude, an association with fertility would be a hint of potential selection on political ideology. We therefore investigated on the basis of men and women that have completed, respectively, almost completed reproduction, of three different data sets (the World Value Survey 1981-2014 covering a wide range of countries and developmental levels, n = 152,380, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe of 2005, n = 65,912, and the General Social Survey of the United States 1972-2014, n ∼ 6200) whether political attitude is associated with number of children. Overall, in the world wide survey, both extreme political attitudes, albeit more pronounced for right/conservative than for left/liberal attitude, are associated with higher average offspring number compared to intermediate attitudes. If countries are analyzed separately, however, the picture is inconsistent, and in most countries, the association is non-significant. In the European and the US-survey, only the political right is associated with above average number of children. The time series of US data from 1972 to 2014 shows that at least in the US-sample, this pattern emerged during the 1990s: in the 1970s and 1980s, also in the US-sample both political extremes had a reproductive advantage, which vanished for left wing individuals during the 1990s. From an evolutionary perspective, we are not able to draw final conclusions as the association between political attitude and reproduction varies across countries and time. Nonetheless, the overall pattern suggests that in human evolutionary history, both left and right political attitudes may have conveyed fitness benefits so that both attitudes have been kept in the population.

BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2015

Facial asymmetries are commonly used as a proxy for human developmental imprecision resulting fro... more Facial asymmetries are commonly used as a proxy for human developmental imprecision resulting from inbreeding, and thus reduced genetic heterozygosity. Several environmental factors influence human facial asymmetry (e.g., health care, parasites), but the generalizability of findings on genetic stressors has been limited in humans by sample characteristics (island populations, endogamy) and indirect genetic assessment (inference from pedigrees). In a sample of 3215 adult humans from the Rotterdam Study, we therefore studied the relationship of facial asymmetry, estimated from nine mid-facial landmarks, with genetic variation at 102 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci recently associated with facial shape variation. We further tested whether the degree of individual heterozygosity is negatively correlated with facial asymmetry. An ANOVA tree regression did not identify any SNP relating to either fluctuating asymmetry or total asymmetry. In a general linear model, only age and se...