Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemGendered Fitness Interests: A Method Partitioning the Effects of Family Composition on Socio-Political Attitudes and Behaviors(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2019)Whereas most people are biologically either male or female, their genetic interests are almost never aligned with just their own sex. Drawing on the evolutionary theory of inclusive fitness gained through relatives, we suggest it is possible to partition the effects of kin on fitness into those that derive from female versus male relatives. We argue that the balance of these female- and male-derived effects, which we call ‘Gendered Fitness Interests’ (GFI), might influence human behavior, especially the adoption of socio-political attitudes regarding issues with a gendered dimension. Our proposal builds on previous conjectures within evolution, as well as observations from both within and beyond the evolutionary sciences that parents’ socio-political views covary with the sex of their children, and the numbers of relatives of each sex. Further, it is consistent with the relatively small average differences between women’s and men’s socio-political positions. Using simulated data, we outline a method for partitioning GFI, and derive the testable predictions that the GFI component of women’s and men’s socio-political attitudes will converge with age, and with larger family sizes. Our proposal does not replace or falsify other theories of sex differences and similarities, but it does formalize a previously underappreciated component of variance in traits and attitudes with a gendered dimension. In this respect, it may be generally useful in resolving the complex origins of gendered behavior, and the primacy of an individual’s gender identification (including but not limited to biological sex) as a fixed and distinctive part of their socio-political identity.