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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–2Cite as

Grandmother Hypothesis of Menopause

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Synonyms

Altriciality lifespan hypothesis; Stopping early hypothesis

Definition

Grandmother hypothesis of menopause claims that human females stop reproducing early in relation to their long lifespan because they can gain more fitness benefits by investing in their children or grandchildren rather than by reproducing themselves. Grandmother hypothesis tries not to explain the evolution of menopause per se but rather the evolution of long nonreproductive lifespan of human females.

Introduction

Long nonreproductive lifespan of human females presents an evolutionary puzzle. Evolutionary theory predicts that individuals are programmed to maximize their number of descendants in future generations, meaning that they should reproduce until death. Thus, there should be selection against living well beyond one’s fertile years. In contrast to some earlier views, based on current knowledge, menopause is not a feature of humans only, but exists also in some non-primate species, namely dolphins,...

Keywords

  • Grandmother Hypothesis
  • Grandparental Investment
  • Caring Grandmotherhood
  • Grandchild Survival
  • Non-reproductive Years

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Antti O. Tanskanen

  2. Population Research Institute of Finland, Helsinki, Finland

    Mirkka Danielsbacka

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

Correspondence to Antti O. Tanskanen .

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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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M. (2016). Grandmother Hypothesis of Menopause. 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_1501-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1501-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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