Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe (2022)
Journal Article
Rickard, I. J., Vullioud, C., Rousset, F., Postma, E., Helle, S., Lummaa, V., …Courtiol, A. (2022). Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe. Nature Communications, 13(1), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30366-9

Historically, mothers producing twins gave birth, on average, more often than non-twinners. This observation has been interpreted as twinners having higher intrinsic fertility – a tendency to conceive easily irrespective of age and other factors – wh... Read More about Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe.

Intergenerational capital flows are central to fitness dynamics and adaptive evolution in humans (2017)
Journal Article
Rickard, I. (2017). Intergenerational capital flows are central to fitness dynamics and adaptive evolution in humans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, Article e339. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x17001200

Human fitness dynamics are uniquely and profoundly governed by the flow of capital to subsequent generations. Low socioeconomic status individuals may possess limited capacity to direct capital to descendants and may respond to such constraints adapt... Read More about Intergenerational capital flows are central to fitness dynamics and adaptive evolution in humans.

Genetic Associations Between Personality Traits and Lifetime Reproductive Success in Humans (2016)
Journal Article
Berg, V., Lummaa, V., Rickard, I., Silventoinen, K., Capri, J., & Jokela, M. (2016). Genetic Associations Between Personality Traits and Lifetime Reproductive Success in Humans. Behavior Genetics, 46(6), 742-753. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-016-9803-5

Personality has been associated with reproductive success in humans and other animals, suggesting potential evolutionary selection pressures. However, studies to date have only examined these associations on a phenotypic level, which may be inadequat... Read More about Genetic Associations Between Personality Traits and Lifetime Reproductive Success in Humans.

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Adaptation Reconsidered (2016)
Book Chapter
Rickard, I. (2016). The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Adaptation Reconsidered. In A. Alvergne, C. Jenkinson, & C. Faurie (Eds.), Evolutionary thinking in medicine : from research to policy and practice (75-88). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29716-3_6

It is now well established that an individual’s experience in the womb can have long-term consequences for their health and well-being. From an evolutionary perspective, it can be predicted that organisms will respond to their early conditions adapti... Read More about The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Adaptation Reconsidered.

What Can Cross-Cultural Correlations Teach Us about Human Nature? (2014)
Journal Article
Pollet, T., Tybur, J., Frankenhuis, W., & Rickard, I. (2014). What Can Cross-Cultural Correlations Teach Us about Human Nature?. Human Nature, 25(3), 410-429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-014-9206-3

Many recent evolutionary psychology and human behavioral ecology studies have tested hypotheses by examining correlations between variables measured at a group level (e.g., state, country, continent). In such analyses, variables collected for each ag... Read More about What Can Cross-Cultural Correlations Teach Us about Human Nature?.

Why are childhood family factors associated with timing of maturation? A role for internal prediction (2014)
Journal Article
Rickard, I., Frankenhuis, W., & Nettle, D. (2014). Why are childhood family factors associated with timing of maturation? A role for internal prediction. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(1), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613513467

Children, particularly girls, who experience early familial adversity tend to go on to reach sexual maturity relatively early. This feature of adolescent development is believed to be an evolved strategy that arose because individuals with genes that... Read More about Why are childhood family factors associated with timing of maturation? A role for internal prediction.

The influence of early-life nutrition on mortality and reproductive success during a subsequent famine in a pre-industrial population (2013)
Journal Article
Hayward, A., Rickard, I., & Lummaa, V. (2013). The influence of early-life nutrition on mortality and reproductive success during a subsequent famine in a pre-industrial population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(34), 13886-13891. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301817110

The demographic transition influences variance in fitness and selection on height and BMI in rural Gambia. (2013)
Journal Article
Courtiol, A., Rickard, I., Lummaa, V., Prentice, A., Fulford, A., & Stearns, S. (2013). The demographic transition influences variance in fitness and selection on height and BMI in rural Gambia. Current Biology, 23(10), 884-889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.006

Intergenerational effects of maternal birth season on offspring size in rural Gambia (2012)
Journal Article
Rickard, I., Courtiol, A., Prentice, A., Fulford, A., Clutton-Brock, T., & Lummaa, V. (2012). Intergenerational effects of maternal birth season on offspring size in rural Gambia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1745), 4253-4262. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1363

Environmental conditions experienced in early life can influence an individual's growth and long-term health, and potentially also that of their offspring. However, such developmental effects on intergenerational outcomes have rarely been studied. He... Read More about Intergenerational effects of maternal birth season on offspring size in rural Gambia.