Life History Strategy in Poland: Population Displacement as a Life History Accelerating Event

Population-level life history research on humans has proven to be a fruitful research programme, establishing numerous socioeconomic and behavioral correlates of life history strategy. Herein, this research programme is extended to the Republic of Poland. Life history speed is estimated for 380 powiats and cities with powiat status. To investigate how life history associates with socioeconomic development, the general socioeconomic factor (S factor) is also extracted. Presidential election results are used to emulate differences in political behavior. In line with previous research, the data show negative correlation between fast life history strategy, the S factor, and percentage of votes for the conservative presidential candidate. Notably, powiats located within Western Borderlands (territories that were part of Germany prior to World War II) tend to have faster life history strategy. This pattern could be explained by forced population displacement of over 1.5 million people that were resettled from USSR into Western Borderlands, thus replacing prior German inhabitants. Forced population displacement can be understood as a disruptive life event that accelerates life history strategy. This can have long-lasting effects, and the present study provides additional insight into the detrimental consequences of population displacement.