Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Adaptive Problem of Detecting Kinship

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

  • 550 Accesses

Synonyms

Altruistic behavior; Coresidence; Genetic relatedness; Incestuous behavior; Kin detection system; Maternal perinatal association; Nepotism;

Definition

Evolution of cues used by humans to detect kin in order to avoid incest and promote altruistic behavior toward genetic relatives.

Introduction

As a highly social species, humans interact and cooperate with many individuals; however cooperation among relatives tends to be greater than among unrelated individuals (Hamilton 1964). Throughout history, humans of all known cultures have always tended to feel and behave differently toward family members than to individuals to whom they were not genetically related. This behavior, which is not exclusive to humans, is distinguished by two important traits: on the one hand, the display of a highly altruistic behavior in which their own welfare could be sacrificed to help family members and, on the other hand, an innate aversion to any sexual contact with genetic relatives. From the...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Apicella, C. L., & Marlowe, F. W. (2004). Perceived mate fidelity and paternal resemblance predict men’s investment in children. Evolution and Human Behavior, 25, 371–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bevc, I., & Silverman, I. (2000). Early separation and sibling incest: A test of the revised Westermarck theory. Evolution and Human Behavior, 21, 151–161.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burnstein, E., Crandall, C., & Kitayama, S. (1994). Some neo-Darwinian decision rules for altruism: Weighing cues for inclusive fitness as a function of the biological importance of the decision. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 773–789.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., Little, A. C., & Perrett, D. I. (2008). Social perception of facial resemblance in humans. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37(1), 64–77.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geary, D. C. (2005). The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence. Washington, DC: APA.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour I. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lieberman, D., Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (2007). The architecture of human kin detection. Nature, 445(7129), 727–731.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Park, J. H., Schaller, M., & Van Vugt, M. (2008). Psychology of human kin recognition: Heuristic cues, erroneous inferences, and their implications. Review of General Psychology, 12, 215–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, R. C. (2015). Evolutionary psychology, altruism, and kin selection. In T. Breyer (Ed.), Epistemological dimensions of evolutionary psychology (p. 214). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, A. P. (1995). Sexual attraction and childhood association: A Chinese brief for Edward Westermarck. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Sonia Tucci

Authors
  1. Sonia Tucci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonia Tucci .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Tucci, S. (2016). Adaptive Problem of Detecting Kinship. 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_1541-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1541-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation