Natural Selection and Social Theory: Selected Papers of Robert Trivers (Evolution and Cognition Series)

356 Pages·2002·1.26 MB·English

by  Robert Trivers

Natural Selection and
Social Theory:
Selected Papers of
Robert Trivers
Robert Trivers
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Natural Selection and Social Theory
Evolution and Cognition
GeneralEditor:StephenStich,RutgersUniversity
PublishedintheSeries
SimpleHeuristicsThatMakeUsSmart
GerdGigerenzer,PeterM.Todd,andtheABCResearchGroup
AdaptiveThinking
GerdGigerenzer
NaturalSelectionandSocialTheory:
SelectedPapersofRobertTrivers
RobertTrivers
Natural Selection and Social Theory
(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)
Selected Papers of Robert Trivers
Robert Trivers
1
2002
3
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Copyright(cid:1)2002byOxfordUniversityPress,Inc.
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Trivers,Robert.
Naturalselectionandsocialtheory:selectedpapersofRobertTrivers/byRobertTrivers.
p. cm.—(Evolutionandcognition)
Acollectionof10papers,5publishedinscholarlyjournalsbetween1971–1976
and5between1982–2000.
Reciprocalaltruism—Parentalinvestmentandreproductivesuccess—The
Trivers-Willardeffect—Parent-offspringconflict—Haplodiploidyandthesocialinsects
—Sizeandreproductivesuccessinalizard—Selectinggoodgenesfordaughters—
Self-deceptioninserviceofdeceit—Genomicimprinting—Fluctuatingasymmetry
and2nd:4thdigitratioinchildren.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-19-513061-8;0-19-513062-6(pbk.)
1. Sociobiology. 2. Evolution(Biology) 3. Socialevolutioninanimals.
I. Title. II. Series.
GN365.9.T762002
304.5—dc21 2001036767
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacidfreepaper
Formymother,
MildredRaynoldsTrivers,
authorofsevenchildrenand
sevenbooksofpoetry,
bornJuly4,1912
withlove
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PREFACE
Thisbookisacollectionofsomeofmyscientificpapers,alongwithaccounts
of how they were written and short postscripts that attempt to bring the
readerup-to-date.Ihavenaturallyconcentratedonmyearlypapers,thefive
between 1971 and 1976 that had such a strong influence. In addition to
these I have included an empirical paper on lizard size and reproductive
success. I have also included a paper (with Jon Seger) showing a bias in
female choice toward the interests of daughters, a widely neglected paper
that I hope this volume will help resurrect. My thinking on self-deception
is scattered in various places, including chapter 16 of my book Social Evo-
lution. Here I reproduce a paper with Huey Newton analyzing the contri-
butionofself-deceptiontothecrashofanairplane,alongwithapaperjust
publishedthatsummarizesmycurrentunderstandingofthesubject.Since
finishingmybookonSocialEvolutionin1985,Ihavelargelybeenoccupied
tryingtounderstandthegeneticsandevolutionofselfishgeneticelements,
avastsubjectfromwhichIreproducehereonlyachapterwithAustinBurt
on genomic imprinting, itself one of the most interesting discoveries in
mammaliangeneticsinthepasttwentyyears.Iclosewithabriefsummary
oftheresultsoftheonlylong-termstudyoffluctuatingasymmetry(andthe
2nd:4thdigitratio)inhumans.
Thepostscriptsaremeanttoleadthereadertosomeusefulworkpublished
afterthepaperitself.Ihavenotkeptupindepthwithmanyofthesetopics,
butwhenIknowofimportantworkItrytodrawthereader’sattentiontoit,
andIalsotrytogiveasetofrecentreferencesthatcanquicklyleadthereader
tothelargersubject.Havingsaidthis,Imustemphasizethatwithmodern
computer-driven search engines (such as Web of Science) the interested
readerhasonlytofindthe“citedreferencesearch”andtypeinthereferenceto
mypaper,andthecomputerwillspewoutveryrecentreferencesonthetopic.
viii PREFACE
Acknowledgments
ThisbookwascompletedunderaJohnSimonGuggenheimMemorialFel-
lowship,aswellaSmithkline-BeechamFellowshipattheSchoolofLawat
ArizonaStateUniversity.Iammostgratefulforthesefellowships.Iamalso
grateful to the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the Biosocial Re-
searchFoundationforsupportofmywork.Ithankmyeditor,KirkJensen,
forhiscontinualencouragementandhelp.IthankAmyJacobsonforatruly
outstandingcopyeditingoftheentiremanuscript.
Ithankthepublishersforpermissiontoreproducethecopyrightedmaterial
listedbelow:
Chapter1:Trivers,RobertL.1971.Theevolutionofreciprocalaltruism.
TheQuarterlyReviewofBiology46(Mar.):35–57.
Chapter 2: Trivers, Robert L. 1972. Parental investment and sexual se-
lection.InSexualSelectionandtheDescentofMan1871–1971,ed.Bernard
Campbell,136–179.Chicago:AldinePublishingCompany.
Chapter3:Trivers,RobertL.,andDanE.Willard.1973.Naturalselec-
tion of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of offspring.Science179(Jan.):
90–92.
Chapter 4: Trivers, Robert L. 1974. Parent–offspringconflict.American
Zoologist14:249–264.
Chapter5:Trivers,RobertL.,andHopeHare.1976.Haplodiploidyand
the evolution of the social insects: The unusual traits of the social insects
are uniquely explained by Hamilton’s kinship theory. Science 191(Jan.):
249–263.
Chapter 6: Trivers, Robert L. 1976. Sexual selection and resource-
accruingabilitiesinAnolisgarmani.Evolution30(Jul.):253–269.
Chapter7:Seger,Jon,andRobertTrivers.1986.Asymmetryintheevo-
lutionoffemalematingpreferences.Nature319:771–773.
Chapter 8: Trivers, Robert, and Huey P. Newton. 1982. The crash of
Flight90:Doomedbyself-deception?ScienceDigest(Nov.):66–67,111.
Trivers,Robert.2000.Theelementsofascientifictheoryofself-deception.
AnnalsoftheNewYorkAcademyofSciences907(Apr.):114–131.
Chapter 9: Burt, Austin, and Robert Trivers. 1998. Genetic conflicts in
genomic imprinting. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (B) 265:
2393–2397.
Chapter 10: Manning, J.T., R.L. Trivers, R. Thornhill, and D. Singh.
2000. The 2nd:4th digit ratio and asymmetry ofhand performanceinJa-
maicanchildren.Laterality5(2):121–132.
CONTENTS
1. Reciprocalaltruism,3
2. Parentalinvestmentandreproductivesuccess,56
3. TheTrivers-Willardeffect,111
4. Parent–offspringconflict,123
5. Haplodiploidyandthesocialinsects,154
6. Sizeandreproductivesuccessinalizard,207
7. Selectinggoodgenesfordaughters,241
8. Self-deceptioninserviceofdeceit,255
9. Genomicimprinting,294
10. Fluctuatingasymmetryandthe2nd:4thdigitratioin
children,309
References,329
Index,335