Evolutionary psychologist Daniel Nettle claims that a lot of the
social problems associated with socioeconomic deprivation are
actually evolutionarily adaptive strategies for maximising
opportunities when faced with uncertain prospects. To wit: risk-
taking behaviour such as gambling and crime make sense when,
ordinarily, individuals' prospects look bleak, unhealthy diets
make sense when there isn't much of a future to plan for (junk
food, after all, is a far more economical source of energy in
the short term than eating healthily), and, as for teenage
pregnancy, that's what's known as a fast reproductive strategy
(i.e., have as many offspring as quickly as possible and hope
that some do OK rather than putting all your proverbial eggs in
one basket): At a meeting last year, Sarah Johns at the
University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, reported that in her study
of young women from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds in
Gloucestershire, UK, those who perceived their environment as
risky or dangerous, and those that