The Selfish Gene

- CHAPTER 8 -

This chapter continues the discussion of how apparent

parental altruism is just the selfish gene at work. Selfish gene
theory dictates that parents should not favor one child over
another, since all share the same percentage of genes with
their mother. Dawkins turns to the question of whether
mothers favor one child over another in their expression of
parental altruism. He defines parental investment as any
action a parent takes that increases the offspring's chance of
surviving (and hence reproductive success) at the cost of the
parent's ability to invest in other offspring. Investments
include food, risks, energy, and effort. Dawkins concludes
that there is no genetic reason for a mother to have favorites
since she is equally related to all her children. Thus her best
strategy is to invest equally in the largest number of children.
Nonetheless, those actuarial calculations Dawkins previously
mentioned come into play. For example, an undersized or
otherwise unhealthy child is less likely to survive than a
healthy sibling. So in a litter of cats or dogs, for example, a
nursing mother may refuse to feed the runt. Dawkins
predicts a mother may favor a younger or an older child as
well, depending on which is most likely to carry her genes
into the next generation. He also speculates that menopause
is an adaptation allowing females to invest in their
grandchildren. Dawkins turns to the selfishness of children
who manipulate their parents to get favorable treatment.
Although siblings are as genetically related as parents are to
children, with 50 percent of their genes in common, they are
twice as closely related to themselves, which makes it likely
that they will try to grab mother's resources for themselves.
According to selfish gene theory, a child should try to get
more than its fair share up to the point where the resulting
net cost to is just double the benefit of the grabbing for
itself. Parasitic birds, such as cuckoos and honeyguides, lay
their eggs in the nests of other birds, and both species of
hatchlings promptly kill their foster brothers and sisters
immediately after they are hatched. Similar behavior has
been observed in swallow eggs put into magpie nests by
researchers, but the swallow hatchlings killed only one egg
by tipping it out of the nest. Dawkins speculates the swallow
hatchlings might commit fratricide even with their genetically
related siblings to increase the chances of their own survival.