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Kin Recognition and Classification in Humans

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Childhood co-residence duration; Contextual cues; Direct familiarization; Heuristic process; Kin recognition; Kin-directed behavior; Kinship estimator; Kinship index; Maternal perinatal association; Phenotypic cues; Phenotypic matching

Definition

Kin recognition is broadly defined as the ability to identify or distinguish kin from non-kin using genetic similarity or any cues correlated with kinship. However, recognition does not necessarily lead to differential responses toward kin, “just as recognizing a fruit as an orange does not necessarily lead us to eating it” (Barnard 1991). Accordingly, in this chapter, the term kin discriminationis used to designate the differential treatment of kin and non-kin, thanks to the ability to distinguish between them. This research shows that the perception of kinship cues may trigger a heuristic process of kin recognition. Here, the term “heuristic” could be defined as a strategy that ignores part of the information, with the goal of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 5163 CLLE-LTC, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Gwenaël Kaminski

  2. Institut Universitaire de France, 103 boulevard Saint-Michel, 75005, Paris, France

    Gwenaël Kaminski

Authors
  1. Gwenaël Kaminski
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Correspondence to Gwenaël Kaminski .

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

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Kaminski, G. (2016). Kin Recognition and Classification in Humans. 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_1528-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1528-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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