“Human Grief: Is Its Intensity Related to the Reproductive Value of the Deceased?”, 1989-04 (; similar):
Thurstone’s method of comparative judgment was used to measure the intensity of grief that parents of high-reproductive value, moderate-reproductive-value, and low-reproductive value were expected to experience at the death of male and female children of different ages.
The results were correlated with reproductive values for male and female British Columbians and for !Kung Bushwomen. Grief ratings were more highly correlated with reproductive value than with age and more highly correlated with reproductive values of !Kung Bushwomen than with those of British Columbians.
The correlations were higher for male-stimulus than for female-stimulus children. The correlations of female ratings with reproductive value were higher than male ratings with reproductive value, although not as high as expected.
However, the correlation between grief ratings and reproductive value did not increase as the reproductive value of the raters declined.