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Two-tiers of life history: straw men, polar bears, and confusing causation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2025

Anthony Volk Open the ORCID record for Anthony Volk [Opens in a new window]
Anthony Volk*
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada tvolk@brocku.ca
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

While I applaud the effort that went into their article, I believe Ellis and colleagues’ two-tiered theory of life history has three problems: (1) relying on a straw man argument; (2) limitations in their data; and (3) alternate theoretical explanations for their correlations. Failure to attend to these issues resulted in a more confident presentation of their conclusions than is warranted.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e127
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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