@article{ref1,
title="Collective Optimism and Selection Against Male Twins in Utero",
journal="Twin research and human genetics",
year="2020",
author="Catalano, Ralph A. and Goldman-Mellor, Sidra and Karasek, Deborah A. and Gemmill, Alison and Casey, Joan A. and Elser, Holly and Bruckner, Tim A. and Hartig, Terry",
volume="23",
number="1",
pages="45-50",
abstract="Scholarly literature claims that health declines in populations when optimism about investing in the future wanes. This claim leads us to describe collective optimism as a predictor of selection in utero. Based on the literature, we argue that the incidence of suicide gauges collective optimism in a population and therefore willingness to invest in the future. Using monthly data from Sweden for the years 1973-2016, we test the hypothesis that the incidence of suicide among women of child-bearing age correlates inversely with male twin births, an indicator of biological investment in high-risk gestations. We find that, as predicted by our theory, the incidence of suicide at month t varies inversely with the ratio of twin to singleton male births at month t + 3. Our results illustrate the likely sensitivity of selection in utero to change in the social environment and so the potential for viewing collective optimism as a component of public health infrastructure.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1832-4274",
doi="10.1017/thg.2020.2",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/thg.2020.2"
}