According to life-span developmentalist Paul Baltes,the benefits conferred by evolutionary selection decrease with age.Natural selection has not weeded out many harmful conditions and nonadaptive characteristics that appear among older adults.Why?
A)Degeneration aids in the transmission of desirable traits to future generations.
B)Natural selection operates primarily on characteristics that are tied to reproductive fitness.
C)Human evolution has no effect on previous generations.
D)Evolved mechanisms are always adaptive in contemporary society.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Natural selection operates primarily on characteristics that increase an organism's reproductive fitness and contribute to the survival of offspring. Since most harmful conditions and nonadaptive characteristics commonly appear after the reproductive age, natural selection has not had enough time or pressure to weed them out because they do not affect an individual's ability to produce viable offspring. Therefore, these conditions and characteristics continue to exist and accumulate as an individual ages.

According to Life-Span Developmentalist Paul Baltes,the Benefits Conferred by Evolutionary