Definition
The genetic interests of parents and their offspring are not identical. Offspring can be expected to want more investment than their parents are selected to give them.
Introduction
Human infants cry. The noise seems louder than is necessary given the typical distance to a care giver and in the context of human evolution loud crying might attract predators. Crying has certain frequencies that are grating to adult ears. Crying expresses a need of the infant, but it seems that in a cooperative version of evolution these needs could be communicated with simpler, quieter signals. From weaning tantrums in primates to the loud begging of fledgling birds, parent-offspring communication often seems to reflect conflict rather than cooperation.
In 1974Robert Trivers proposed an evolutionary framework within which to understand this conflict. Trivers’ idea is rooted in the concept of kin selection. In this view, the evolutionary consequence of a behavior is affected not just by its...
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Malcolm, J. (2016). Parent-Offspring Conflict (Trivers). In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3037-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3037-1
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