PARENT-OFFSPRING

CONFLICT AND PARENTAL

INVESTMENT- ROBERT
TRIVERS
Parental Investment Theory

◦ One explanation of mate selection and human

reproductive behaviour is ‘Parental Investment Theory’

Robert Ludlow "Bob" Trivers, born February 19, 1943, is an American

evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist. Trivers proposed the theories

of reciprocal altruism (1971), parental investment (1972), facultative

sex ratio determination (1973), and parent–offspring conflict (1974).

Parental Investment (PI)

◦ “Any investment by the parent in an individual offspring

that increases the offspring’s chance of survivng at the
cost of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring”
Parental Investment

◦ Includes provision of resources:

◦ Food
◦ Energy
◦ Territory

◦ Time spent teaching offspring

◦ Risks taken to protect young

Parental Investment

◦ Trivers believes that the differences between male and

female reproductive behaviour is as a result of
differences in parental investment made by males and
females
Males…

◦ Limitless sperm

◦ Fertile throughout life

determined by number of
◦ Number of potential offspring
potential female partners
◦ Required level of parental investment = Low
Oldest natural parents…
 Females…
◦
Egg is more than 100x larger than sperm
◦ Only release 1 (usually) a month
◦ Fertility lasts for around 30 years
◦ Average 40 weeks pregnancy
◦ Nutrients for foetus comes from mother’s own supplies
◦ Painful birth with potential complications
◦ Breastfeeding (in the past this would have lasted 2 yrs)

◦ Required level of Parental Investment = Very High

 Rates of abortion by single and married
women of different ages in England and
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◦ Women = ensure survival s
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of few precious offspring .. 16-19 25-29 35..39 45-49
20-24 30-34 40-44
c Age of pregnant women
 Brain Size

◦ At birth, the human brain is only 27% of it’s adult size.

◦ (Macaque monkeys are born with 70% brain development)

◦ The adult human brain is 4 times larger than would be

expected in a primate with our size body
 Brain Size

◦ A human baby’s brain is very large at birth compared to the

size of the body

◦ Human females have evolved to have wider hips and pelvis to

cope with this extra pressure
◦ Childbirth has become more painful for a female as a result
 Brain Growth in Mao & Chimpanzee
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 Brain Size

◦ As a result of our larger brains, humans must be born at this lower

level of brain development
◦ This results in babies having restricted motor capabilities when
they are born
◦ It takes humans twice as long as a chimpanzee to develop the
ability to walk and hold on to it’s mother

◦ It takes a long time for a child to reach a state where it could

survive without it’s parents
◦
Trivers (1972) defined parental investment as “Any investment by the parent in an individual

offspring that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving”

◦
The female investment is greater as eggs are less numerous and more costly than sperm. A

female is limited in the number of offspring she can produce whereas a male can have a virtually
◦
unlimited number of offspring.

◦ Human mothers make a greater pre-natal contribution through the demands of pregnancy and
◦ carrying and nourishing a child for 40 weeks.
Women also make a greater post-natal contribution through breastfeeding and care.

An increase in brain size has made childbirth more difficult, human babies are born prematurely
◦
and so need extra care and are more dependent on their mothers than other species, resulting in

◦ greater maternal investment.

Alternatively, the required parental investment from males is much lower and the best way for a

male to increase his inclusive fitness is to have many fertile, female partners

These factors explain why women select quality over quantity in potential partners and prioritise
 Sex Difference in Likelihood of Agreeing to
Sexual Intercourse

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AO2 support for PI theory

◦  Buss (1989)

◦  Buss (1992)

◦  Daly & Wilson (1988)

◦  Geher et al (2007)
Buss (1989)

differences in modern
◦ Demonstrated gender
relationships
◦ 37 cultures in 6 continents
◦ 10,000+ participants
◦ Questionnaire on mate preferences
Buss (1989)
◦ Across all cultures…

◦ Women showed a preference for males with resources or possessing

characteristics that would translate to resources (intelligence/ambition)

◦ Women preferred a high-status male on average 5 years older than

themselves

◦ Men placed more emphasis on physical attractiveness (indication of

woman’s health/fertility)

◦ Men desired a partner who was younger than themselves

 Buss (1992)
◦ Sexual jealousy may have evolved as a solution to
these problems…

◦ Buss (1992)
◦ Which is worse?
◦ A) The knowledge that your partner has had sex with
someone else
◦ B) The knowledge that your partner has developed a deep
emotional bond with someone else
 Buss (1992)

◦ 85% of women chose option B – deep emotional bond

◦ 60% of men chose option A

option A
◦ (The majority of the 40% of males who had chosen
had never been in a committed sexual relationship)
 Sexual Jealousy (Buss, 1992)
◦ For a man, an unfaithful mate means risk of investing in a child who is not
their own

◦ a diversion of resources away

For a woman, an unfaithful mate may mean
from the family
◦ Sexual Jealousy may have evolved as a solution to these problems

◦ Risk of cuckoldry means men are more jealous of the sex act itself
◦ Women are more concerned with the emotional focus and loss of resources
 AO2

◦ Buss supports the idea of sex differences in parental

investment influencing their mate choice (1989)
◦ And their differences in sexual jealousy (1992)

◦ Parental uncertainty can only occur in the male, therefore it is

important men are sure the offspring is theirs and they don’t
invest in another man’s offspring
 Daly & Wilson (1988)
◦ Daly & Wilson (1988)

◦ Children under the age of 2 are 60 times more likely to be killed by a

step-parent (usually step-father) than by a natural parent

◦ Step parents-infants are genetically unrelated, therefore investing

resources, time & energy in them is evolutionary pointless
 Daly & Wilson (1988)

◦ Younger mothers are more likely to kill their infants than older
mothers

◦ Older mothers are less likely to abuse or harm their infants

◦ (even when financial resources and marital status are held

constant)
  Geher et al (2007)
◦ Studied 91 non-parent heterosexual undergraduates

◦ 1. Filled out questionnaire on how prepared they are to have a

child

◦ Both males and females scored equally…

◦ 2. ANS arousal measured when given parenting scenarios

◦ Males had higher response
 Geher et al (2007)

◦ Consistent with PI theory…

◦ …males are biologically less prepared than females to

confront issues associated with parenting

◦ (highest inclusive fitness from multiple partners, not high

paternal investment to one singular infant)
Parental Investment Theory…
◦ 1. The costs of maternal investment (reproductive success)

◦ Longevity and quantity/quality of mates (Buss, 1989)

◦ 2. Sexual and emotional jealousy + cuckoldry risk

◦ Buss (1992)

◦ 3. Paternal investment
◦ Daly & Wilson
◦ Geher (2007)
◦ 4. Parent-Offspring Conflict
 Parent-Offspring Conflict

◦ Offspring are not completely passive in this process

◦ Trivers (1974)

◦ Children desire greater investment than their parents provide

◦ Parents try to allocate resources to ensure that the maximum number of
offspring survive
◦ Conflict occurs when each child wants more resources than parents are
prepared to give
Parent-Infant Conflict

◦ Pre-natal conflict

◦ Post-natal conflict

◦ Sibling rivalry
 ◦ food supply to the fetus.
◦
Pre-natal conflict When a fetus perceives that it needs
more nutrition, it releases a hormone

◦ into the mother’s bloodstream that

This raises
causes the mother’s
her arteries blood
to constrict.
pressure and therefore delivers more

◦ blood (and hence nutrition) to the

this
fetuscan damage the mother’s tissues
and in severe cases can cause
◦
maternal death.
Clearly the adaptation has evolved to
benefit the fetus, even at the expense
 Post-Natal Conflict
◦ We originally would have ◦ Child Development
breast-fed for the first 2 years of
life
◦
2 years is often associate with
◦
After this time period, infants increased temper tantrums and

would be ‘weaned off’ and put aggression

◦ onto solid foods
This makes the infant less
dependent on the mother
 Sibling Rivalry

• Offspring will want more than their “fair share” at the expense of
their siblings in order to maximise their own fitness.

• As a result sibling rivalries develop as children compete for the

attention and resources of parents.
 Andrews (2006)

◦ Analysed responses from a survey of 1600 US adolescents.

◦ Results showed that severe suicide attempts were significantly more common

among middle-born compared to first and last-born children.

◦ This study supports the view that that suicidal behaviour may be an adaptive

response in line with the predictions of the PI theory and that middle-borns

would make risky suicide attempts in an effort to extort increased investment

from parents.
AO1

◦ Trivers (1975) – PI theory

◦ Maternal vs. Paternal investment (pre&post natal)
◦ Brain Size = immature infants requiring more investment
◦ Short/Long term strategies reflecting required PI
◦ Parent-Infant conflict (pre&post natal)
◦ Sibling Rivalry
 AO2

◦ Buss (1989) – sexual selection reflect investment

◦ Buss (1992) – paternal investment risk from cuckoldry
◦ Daly & Wilson (1988) – investment in non-related infants
◦ Geher (2007) – males strong reaction to investment
◦ Andrews (2006) – sibling rivalry (middle child)
 AO3

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Ethnocentricism