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. 2025 Jul 21:16:1568204.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1568204. eCollection 2025.

Life-history strategy, adverse environment, and justification of life-ending decisions

Shaolingyun Guo  1 , Hui Jing Lu  1
Affiliations

Life-history strategy, adverse environment, and justification of life-ending decisions

Shaolingyun Guo et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Objective: Evidence remains limited regarding the interplay between childhood environment, as reflected by life-history calibration, and the current environment, as well as their combined influence on cognitive judgments about life-ending decisions. Drawing on life-history theory, the present study aims to (1) examine whether life-history trade-offs along the fast-slow continuum are associated with the subjective justification of suicide and assisted suicide (euthanasia practices), and (2) explore whether the current environment moderates this relationship.

Methods: In Study 1, a vignette-based questionnaire was administered to Chinese young adults (N = 147) to examine the relationships among life-history traits, current environmental adversity, and the subjective justification of life-ending behaviors. In Study 2, these hypotheses were further tested using cross-national data from the World Values Survey (N = 6,766). Structural equation modeling was employed in both studies to analyze the proposed associations.

Results: Findings from Study 2 indicated that individuals who adopted a slow life-history strategy were less likely to subjectively justify life-ending behaviors. Furthermore, results from both studies demonstrated that the relationship between life-history strategy and the justification of life-ending decisions was moderated by current environmental adversity.

Conclusion: These findings underscore the influence of life-history orientation on cognitive judgments related to life-ending decisions and highlight the moderating role of current environmental conditions. Implications for future suicide intervention programs are discussed.

Keywords: adverse environment; cognitive judgment; life history; life-ending decisions; world values survey.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structural relationships among slow LH traits, current adverse environment and justification of life-ending decisions. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. (χ2/df = 31.09/28 = 1.11, CFI = 0.998, TLI = 0.996, RMSEA = 0.027, SRMR = 0.028). CFI, comparative fit index; RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation; SRMR, standardized root mean square residual; TLI, Tucker–Lewis index. Higher LH values indicate a greater inclination toward slow LH; Higher values for adverse environment indicate increased levels of environmental harshness and unpredictability; Higher justification scores reflect greater subjective justification for life-ending decisions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration of the simple-slope analyses for the predicted justification scores of life-ending decisions resulting from the LH-by-current adverse environment interaction (Study 1). Higher LH values indicate a greater inclination toward slow LH; Higher values for adverse environment indicate increased levels of environmental harshness and unpredictability; Higher justification scores reflect greater subjective justification for life-ending decisions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structural relationships among slow LH traits, current adverse environment and justification of life-ending decisions. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. (CFI = 0.984, TLI = 0.972, RMSEA = 0.041, SRMR = 0.022). CFI, comparative fit index; RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation; SRMR, standardized root mean square residual; TLI, Tucker–Lewis index. Higher LH values indicate a greater inclination toward slow LH; Higher values for adverse environment indicate increased levels of environmental harshness and unpredictability; Higher justification scores reflect greater subjective justification for life-ending decisions.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Illustration of the simple-slope analyses for the predicted justification scores of life-ending decisions resulting from the LH-by-current adverse environment interaction (Study 2). Higher LH values indicate a greater inclination toward slow LH; Higher values for adverse environment indicate increased levels of environmental harshness and unpredictability; Higher justification scores reflect greater subjective justification for life-ending decisions.
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