Social inequalities as sources of extrinsic mortality: implications of the two-tiered model

Ellis et al.'s two-tiered model compellingly integrates biological and psychosocial pathways through which extrinsic mortality shapes life history strategies. An understated, yet important, implication of their framework is the role of social inequalities in signaling mortality risk - particularly through differential exposure to bereavement - and how it may give rise to distinct life history strategies and outcomes.