Parent-Offspring Conflict and Parental Investment-: Robert Trivers

PARENT-OFFSPRING
CONFLICT AND PARENTAL

INVESTMENT- ROBERT
TRIVERS
SHEENA MARIE A. ALBASON
MARY JOY G. ABIERA
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
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 fetus 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
Best chance of 'O
c
60 Wates in 1991
Reproductive »
·E s
C'
G
Success single
-=
.
C-
o women
·ec:
l>
◦ Men = many female -o

40
C
30
!
partners to increase a
Q.
0'G 20
married
inclusive fitness & women
~. 10
◦ Women = ensure survival s
.
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
.-..1400
~ 1200 l
~ 1000
0
al800 -Man
~ 600 - Chimpanzee
. 400
.
M
rll
s
= Birth 5 10 1 2
5
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
Parent – Offspring Conflict
So far we’ve looked at the idea of parental investment as

if the offspring were completely passive in the process.
But this is not the case. The resource allocations that
would maximise parental fitness are not necessarily
identical to those that would maximise offspring fitness.
Trivers 1974 argues that this results in the
following predictions:
Parents and their children will be in conflict about when the
child should be weaned, with the parents generally wanting to
wean the child sooner to free themselves of this time-
consuming and costly activity and the child wanting to receive
milk for longer in order to ensure healthy growth.Parents
encourage children to value siblings more than they are
naturally inclined to as friendly siblings will share resources,
ensuring that all grow healthily with a better chance that the
parent’s genes are perpetuated, and freeing the parents to
invest in younger and therefore more needy siblings . But in
reality siblings are competing for resources.
An Evolutionary Perspective
According to the PI theory, parents maximise their
reproductive fitness by gradually withdrawing their
investment from older children in favour of younger
siblings. First and last-born siblings hold a privileged
status with respect to parental investment.First borns
are closer to reproductive age, when their (and the
parents’ genes) will be perpetuatedLast-borns need
more caring for as they compete for resources amongst
the older, stronger siblings.
This hypothesis is supported by 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.
More Parent – Offspring Conflict
Conflict Before Birth – Some pregnant women suffer

from a potentially fatal condition – Pre-eclamsia, which
is a dangerous rise in the mother’s blood pressure
caused by the foetus secreting hormones in an effort to
get more nutrition. It serves the foetus well as it does
get more nutrients and is an adaptive mechanism which
benefits the foetus at the expense of the mother.
Commentary - Conflict Before Birth
Research has shown that mothers who do have

high blood pressure during pregnancy tend to
have fewer spontaneous abortions and larger
babies at birth.So this suggests that high blood
pressure is associated with more healthy foetuses
and so is an adaptive strategy for the child. A risky
one though, as pre-eclampsia can kill pregnant
woman therefore putting the foetus at risk.
Conflict After Birth – When their offspring are young and
helpless it is in the interests of the parents to invest more of
their resources in these offspring and less in their older,
stronger brothers and sisters.When these babies become older
and stronger, parents can maximise their own reproductive
fitness by directing their limited resources towards the younger
offspring and away from the older child.Parent-offspring conflict
is often most intense at this transfer stage, as the older children
attempt to prolong the parents’ primary focus on them for as
long as possible.
Commentary - Conflict After Birth
Salmon and Daly 1998 argue that many younger

children don’t bother to compete with their older
siblings but instead, opt out of competition for parental
attention altogether and develop traits such as
cooperativeness to help them form alliances with non-
relatives, which could be a useful evolutionary
strategy .And younger children do tend to be more
cooperative. But Shaffer 1993 suggests that this is learnt
through having to negotiate with older siblings.
Sibling Rivalry – In most sexually reproducing species

including our own, 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.Can you think of any
advantages/disadvantages of being an only-child?
Commentary - Sibling Rivalry
Lalumière et al 1996 suggest that a powerful parental
strategy to cope with sibling rivalry is to steer siblings
along different paths, maximising each individual’s
strengths, so that there is less sibling competition and
also less subsequent competition for the same
mates.Homework – Discuss evolutionary explanations
for sex differences in parental investment and parent-
offspring conflict.

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PARENT-OFFSPRING

CONFLICT AND PARENTAL

◦ “Any investment by the parent in an individual offspring

◦ Includes provision of resources:

◦ Time spent teaching offspring

◦ Risks taken to protect young

◦ Trivers believes that the differences between male and

◦ Fertile throughout life

◦ Required level of Parental Investment = Very High

◦ Men = many female -o

◦ 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

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

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

◦ Childbirth has become more painful for a female as a result

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

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

offspring that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving”

◦ greater maternal investment.

So far we’ve looked at the idea of parental investment as

Analysed responses from a survey of 1600 US

Conflict Before Birth – Some pregnant women suffer

Research has shown that mothers who do have

Salmon and Daly 1998 argue that many younger

Sibling Rivalry – In most sexually reproducing species

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