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Outputs (32)

Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity (2011)
Journal Article
Brown, G., Dickins, T., Sear, R., & Laland, K. (2011). Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1563), 313-324. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0267

Human beings persist in an extraordinary range of ecological settings, in the process exhibiting enormous behavioural diversity, both within and between populations. People vary in their social, mating and parental behaviour and have diverse and elab... Read More about Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity.

How much does family matter? Cooperative breeding and the demographic transition (2011)
Journal Article
Sear, R., & Coall, D. (2011). How much does family matter? Cooperative breeding and the demographic transition. Population and Development Review, 37(Supplement S1), 81-112. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00379.x

In this paper we review the empirical evidence that women receive help from family members in raising children, by drawing together published research which has explicitly investigated the impact of kin on child well-being. It is clear from this revi... Read More about How much does family matter? Cooperative breeding and the demographic transition.

Parenting and families (2011)
Book Chapter
Sear, R. (2011). Parenting and families. In V. Swami (Ed.), Evolutionary psychology : a critical introduction (215-250). Wiley

Parenting in Homo sapiens is rather different to parenting in most other primates. Our long developmental period and relatively short birth intervals mean that offspring are ‘stacked’, with mothers having to simultaneously look after several dependen... Read More about Parenting and families.

Does wealth increase parental investment biases in child education ? evidence from two African populations on the cusp of the fertility transition (2010)
Journal Article
Gibson, M., & Sear, R. (2010). Does wealth increase parental investment biases in child education ? evidence from two African populations on the cusp of the fertility transition. Current Anthropology, 51(5), 693-701. https://doi.org/10.1086/655954

Why fertility declines is still a matter of intense debate. One theory proposes that fertility decline may be partly driven by shifts in parental investment strategies: couples reduce family size as demographic and economic changes cause investment i... Read More about Does wealth increase parental investment biases in child education ? evidence from two African populations on the cusp of the fertility transition.

Grandma plays favourites: X-chromosome relatedness and sex-specific childhood mortality (2010)
Journal Article
Fox, M., Sear, R., Beise, J., Ragsdale, G., Voland, E., & Knapp, L. (2010). Grandma plays favourites: X-chromosome relatedness and sex-specific childhood mortality. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1681), 567-573. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.1660

Biologists use genetic relatedness between family members to explain the evolution of many behavioural and developmental traits in humans, including altruism, kin investment and longevity. Women's post-menopausal longevity in particular is linked to... Read More about Grandma plays favourites: X-chromosome relatedness and sex-specific childhood mortality.

Domestication alone does not lead to inequality: intergenerational wealth transmission among horticulturalists (2010)
Journal Article
Gurven, M., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Hooper, P., Kaplan, H., Quinlan, R., Sear, R., …Bell, A. (2010). Domestication alone does not lead to inequality: intergenerational wealth transmission among horticulturalists. Current Anthropology, 51(1), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.1086/648587

We present empirical measures of wealth inequality and its intergenerational transmission among four horticulturalist populations. Wealth is construed broadly as embodied somatic and neural capital, including body size, fertility and cultural knowled... Read More about Domestication alone does not lead to inequality: intergenerational wealth transmission among horticulturalists.

Intergenerational wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies (2009)
Journal Article
Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Bowles, S., Hertz, T., Bell, A., Beise, J., Clark, G., …Wiessner, P. (2009). Intergenerational wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies. Science, 326(5953), 682-688. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1178336

Small-scale human societies range from foraging bands with a strong egalitarian ethos to more economically stratified agrarian and pastoral societies. We explain this variation in inequality using a dynamic model in which a population's long-run stea... Read More about Intergenerational wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies.

How universal are human mate choices? Size does not matter when Hadza foragers are choosing a mate (2009)
Journal Article
Sear, R., & Marlowe, F. (2009). How universal are human mate choices? Size does not matter when Hadza foragers are choosing a mate. Biology Letters, 5(5), 606-609. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0342

It has been argued that size matters on the human mate market: both stated preferences and mate choices have been found to be non-random with respect to height and weight. But how universal are these patterns? Most of the literature on human mating p... Read More about How universal are human mate choices? Size does not matter when Hadza foragers are choosing a mate.

Family matters: kin, demography and child health in a rural Gambian population (2009)
Book Chapter
Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2009). Family matters: kin, demography and child health in a rural Gambian population. In G. Bentley, & R. Mace (Eds.), Substitute parents : biological and social perspectives on alloparenting in human societies (50-76). Berghahn Journals

In this study, we focus on a traditional society, and assume inclusive fitness arguments largely provide an explanation for allocare. Hamilton's rule states that help will be provided to recipients by their relatives, provided that the costs of helpi... Read More about Family matters: kin, demography and child health in a rural Gambian population.

Life after death: An investigation into how mortality perceptions influence fertility preferences using evidence from an internet-based experiment (2008)
Journal Article
Mathews, P., & Sear, R. (2008). Life after death: An investigation into how mortality perceptions influence fertility preferences using evidence from an internet-based experiment. Journal of cultural and evolutionary psychology, 6(3), 155-172. https://doi.org/10.1556/jep.6.2008.3.1

Both life history theory and demographic transition theory predict that fertility responds to changes in mortality, but there have been relatively few tests which identify links between mortality perceptions and fertility preferences at the individua... Read More about Life after death: An investigation into how mortality perceptions influence fertility preferences using evidence from an internet-based experiment.

Kin and child survival in rural Malawi -Are matrilineal kin always beneficial in a matrilineal society? (2008)
Journal Article
Sear, R. (2008). Kin and child survival in rural Malawi -Are matrilineal kin always beneficial in a matrilineal society?. Human Nature, 19(3), 277-293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-008-9042-4

This paper investigates the impact of kin on child survival in a matrilineal society in Malawi. Women usually live in close proximity to their matrilineal kin in this agricultural community, allowing opportunities for helping behavior between matrili... Read More about Kin and child survival in rural Malawi -Are matrilineal kin always beneficial in a matrilineal society?.

Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival (2007)
Journal Article
Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2008). Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.10.001

Children pose a problem. The extended period of childhood dependency and short interbirth intervals mean that human mothers have to care for several dependent children simultaneously. Most evolutionary anthropologists now agree that this is too much... Read More about Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival.

Testing evolutionary theories of menopause (2007)
Journal Article
Shanley, D., Sear, R., Mace, R., & Kirkwood, T. (2007). Testing evolutionary theories of menopause. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 274(1628), 2943-2949. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.1028

Why do women cease fertility rather abruptly through menopause at an age well before generalized senescence renders child rearing biologically impossible? The two main evolutionary hypotheses are that menopause serves either (i) to protect mothers fr... Read More about Testing evolutionary theories of menopause.

Mind the gap(s)....in theory, method and data: Re-examining Kanazawa (2007)
Journal Article
Dickins, T., Sear, R., & Wells, A. (2007). Mind the gap(s)....in theory, method and data: Re-examining Kanazawa. British Journal of Health Psychology, 12(2), 167-178. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910707x174339

Kanazawa (2006) has put forward an evolutionarily grounded theory which claims that individuals in wealthier and more egalitarian societies live longer and stay healthier not because they are wealthier or more egalitarian but because they are more in... Read More about Mind the gap(s)....in theory, method and data: Re-examining Kanazawa.

The impact of reproduction on Gambian women: does controlling for phenotypic quality reveal costs of reproduction? (2007)
Journal Article
Sear, R. (2007). The impact of reproduction on Gambian women: does controlling for phenotypic quality reveal costs of reproduction?. American journal of physical anthropology, 132(4), 632-641. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.20558

Life history theory predicts that where resources are limited, investment in reproduction will cause a decline in body condition and ultimately may lower survival rates. We investigate the relationship between reproduction and mortality in women in r... Read More about The impact of reproduction on Gambian women: does controlling for phenotypic quality reveal costs of reproduction?.

Synthesis in the human evolutionary behavioural sciences (2007)
Journal Article
Sear, R., Lawson, D., & Dickins, T. (2007). Synthesis in the human evolutionary behavioural sciences. Journal of cultural and evolutionary psychology, 5(1-4), 3-28. https://doi.org/10.1556/jep.2007.1019

Over the last three decades, the application of evolutionary theory to the human sciences has shown remarkable growth. This growth has also been characterised by a ‘splitting’ process, with the emergence of distinct sub-disciplines, most notably: Hum... Read More about Synthesis in the human evolutionary behavioural sciences.

Size-dependent reproductive success in Gambian men: does height or weight matter more? (2006)
Journal Article
Sear, R. (2006). Size-dependent reproductive success in Gambian men: does height or weight matter more?. Biodemography and Social Biology, 53(3-4), 172-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/19485565.2006.9989125

Size is an important component of life history analysis, as it is both a determinant and an outcome of life history decisions. Here, we present an investigation of the relationships between two components of size (height and weight) and life history... Read More about Size-dependent reproductive success in Gambian men: does height or weight matter more?.

Height and reproductive success: how a Gambian population compares to the West (2006)
Journal Article
Sear, R. (2006). Height and reproductive success: how a Gambian population compares to the West. Human Nature, 17(4), 405-418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-006-1003-1

In Western societies, height is positively correlated with reproductive success (RS) for men but negatively correlated with RS for women. These relationships have been attributed to sexual selection: women prefer tall men, and men prefer short women.... Read More about Height and reproductive success: how a Gambian population compares to the West.