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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–7Cite as

Trivers-Willard Hypothesis

Definition

Hypothesis that natural selection favors parental ability to alter offspring sex in the direction that maximizes their own reproductive success.

Introduction

Trivers and Willard (1973) proposed that in order to maximize their own long-term reproductive success, it would advantage parents if they could alter the sexes of their offspring. More than 40 years of research have attempted to confirm this hypothesis, but with mixed results. In humans, several lines of evidence suggest that parents who exhibit characteristics associated with increased male reproductive success have more sons than those who do not. Dominance, in particular, provides both an adaptive and plausible characteristic by which the Trivers-Willard hypothesis might operate. Evidence in support of this possibility comes from four areas: (1) offspring sex ratios of fathers demonstrating characteristics of dominance, (2) offspring sex ratios of mothers demonstrating characteristics of dominance, (3) parental...

Keywords

  • Reproductive Success
  • Assortative Mating
  • Parental Investment
  • Female Offspring
  • Male Reproductive Success

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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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada

    Jaime Palmer-Hague

Authors
  1. Jaime Palmer-Hague
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jaime Palmer-Hague .

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

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Gary L Brase

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Palmer-Hague, J. (2016). Trivers-Willard Hypothesis. 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_1911-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1911-1

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