Many important family decisions, such as when to have offspring, essentially manifest different life history strategies, ranging from slow to fast ones. The current research examined how one critical societal factor, social mobility (i.e., the shift of socioeconomic status in a society), may contribute to such slow (vs. fast) life history strategies. With four multi-method studies, including archival data at the national level, a large-sample survey (N = 6787), and experimental studies (N = 497), we found that a high level of social mobility predicted and resulted in delayed reproduction. Specifically, a high level of social mobility, indexed by both objective reality and subjective perception, predicted individuals’ positive future expectations. This further leads them to focus on long-term goals and foster a slow life history strategy, i.e., preferring delayed reproduction. Theoretical implications are discussed.

许多重要的家庭决定，例如何时生育后代，本质上体现了不同的生活史策略，从慢到快。当前的研究探讨了一个关键的社会因素，即社会流动性（即社会中社会经济地位的转变）如何促成这种慢（与快）生活史策略。进行了四项多方法研究，包括国家层面的档案数据、大样本调查（N  = 6787）和实验研究（N = 497），我们发现高水平的社会流动性预示并导致生育延迟。具体而言，以客观现实和主观感知为指标的高水平社会流动性预示着个人对未来的积极期望。这进一步导致他们关注长期目标并制定慢生活史策略，即偏好延迟繁殖。讨论了理论意义。