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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–3Cite as

Maternal Grandmother Invests Most

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Synonyms

Alloparenting; Genetic relatedness; Grandparental investment; Investment in more certain kin; Matrilateral bias; Parental investment; Paternity uncertainty; Pattern of biased grandparental investment; Relationship certainty

Definition

Grandparental investment includes all resources (e.g., time, care, help, money) that grandparents allocate to their offspring. Typically, the maternal grandmother invests more resources in her offspring than other grandparent types (i.e., maternal grandfather, paternal grandmother and paternal grandfather).

Introduction

Robert Trivers’ (1972) theory of parental investment applied Hamilton’s (1964) general rule to parental behavior. Parental investment theory considers the investments that parents make in their offspring and can easily be extended to grandparental investment, but to gain the same fitness advantage, grandparents should invest in a larger number of children than the parents do. Humans are cooperative breeding species, meaning that...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Research Institute of Finland, Helsinki, Finland

    Mirkka Danielsbacka

  2. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Antti O. Tanskanen

Authors
  1. Mirkka Danielsbacka
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  2. Antti O. Tanskanen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mirkka Danielsbacka .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Nicole Barbaro

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Danielsbacka, M., Tanskanen, A.O. (2017). Maternal Grandmother Invests Most. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1188-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1188-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • 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

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