Citation
Ross, Cody T.; Hooper, Paul L.; Smith, Jennifer E.; Jaeggi, Adrian V.; Smith, Eric Alden; Gavrilets, Sergey; Zohora, Fatema T.; Ziker, John; Xygalatas, Dimitris; & Wroblewski, Emily E., et al. (2023). Reproductive Inequality in Humans and Other Mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(22), e2220124120. PMCID: PMC10235947Abstract
To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited degree of polygyny in the human societies that practice it, and to the importance of unequally held rival resources to women's fitness. The muted reproductive inequality observed in humans appears to be linked to several unusual characteristics of our species-including high levels of cooperation among males, high dependence on unequally held rival resources, complementarities between maternal and paternal investment, as well as social and legal institutions that enforce monogamous norms.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220124120Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2023Journal Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of AmericaAuthor(s)
Ross, Cody T.Hooper, Paul L.
Smith, Jennifer E.
Jaeggi, Adrian V.
Smith, Eric Alden
Gavrilets, Sergey
Zohora, Fatema T.
Ziker, John
Xygalatas, Dimitris
Wroblewski, Emily E.
Wood, Brian S.
Winterhalder, Bruce
Willführ, Kai P.
Willard, Aiyana K.
Walker, Kara
von Rueden, Christopher
Voland, Eckart
Valeggia, Claudia
Vaitla, Bapu
Urlacher, Samuel
Towner, Mary
Sum, Chun-Yi
Sugiyama, Lawrence S.
Strier, Karen B.
Starkweather, Kathrine
Major-Smith, Daniel
Shenk, Mary K.
Sear, Rebecca
Seabright, Edmond
Schacht, Ryan
Scelza, Brooke
Scaggs, Shane
Salerno, Jonathan
Revilla-Minaya, Caissa
Redhead, Daniel
Pusey, Anne
Purzycki, Benjamin G.
Power, Eleanor A.
Pisor, Anne
Pettay, Jenni
Perry, Susan
Page, Abigail E.
Pacheco-Cobos, Luis
Oths, Kathryn
Oh, Seung-Yun
Nolin, David A.
Nettle, Daniel
Moya, Cristina
Migliano, Andrea B.
Mertens, Karl J.
McNamara, Rita A.
McElreath, Richard
Mattison, Siobhan
Massengill, Eric
Marlowe, Frank W.
Madimenos, Felicia
Macfarlan, Shane
Lummaa, Virpi
Lizarralde, Roberto
Liu, Ruizhe
Liebert, Melissa A.
Lew-Levy, Sheina
Leslie, Paul W.
Lanning, Joseph
Kramer, Karen
Koster, Jeremy
Kaplan, Hillard S.
Jamsranjav, Bayarsaikhan
Hurtado, A. Magdalena
Hill, Kim
Hewlett, Barry
Helle, Samuli
Headland, Thomas
Headland, Janet
Gurven, Michael
Grimalda, Gianluca
Greaves, Russell
Golden, Christopher D.
Godoy, Irene
Gibson, Mhairi
Mouden, Claire E.
Dyble, Mark
Draper, Patricia
Downey, Sean
DeMarco, Angelina L.
Davis, Helen Elizabeth
Crabtree, Stefani
Cortez, Carmen
Colleran, Heidi
Cohen, Emma
Clark, Gregory
Clark, Julia
Caudell, Mark A.
Carminito, Chelsea E.
Bunce, John
Boyette, Adam
Bowles, Samuel
Blumenfield, Tami
Beheim, Bret
Beckerman, Stephen
Atkinson, Quentin
Apicella, Coren
Alam, Nurul
Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff