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Parent-offspring conflict over mating is
Relations between parents and offspring are not always characterised by harmony, one reason being that the mating decisions of offspring do not always comply with the wishes of their parents. The cause of this conflict is genetic: all of the offspring’s genes come from their parents, but not all of parents’ genes are inherited by their offspring. As a consequence, when offspring exercise mate choice, they prefer mates with traits that benefit their own genes and not the genes they do not share with other family members. In the same vain, parents prefer in-laws with traits that benefit the genes they share with their offspring, and also the genes they share with other family members, but not with their offspring.
When exercising mate choice, both parents and offspring are constrained by their own value with regard to the value of a mate/in-law they can choose. This is because a higher mating value individual is unlikely to settle for someone of a lower mating value. Therefore, mate choice entails compromises on the qualities of a prospective mate/in-law. In other words, both parents and offspring would like to get a maximum mating value individual, but they cannot do so because they are constrained by their own mating value. Therefore, they have to make compromises; however, the optimal compromises for parents are not necessarily optimal for their offspring.
Genetic quality is the most characteristic example of this logic. The coefficient of relatedness of parents to children is 0.5 but the coefficient of relatedness of grandparents to grandchildren is only 0.25. This means that parents receive fewer fitness benefits from a prospective mate of high genetic quality than their offspring.[1][2] Therefore, every ‘unit’ of physical attractiveness a parent is willing to give up leads to a loss of 0.25 units of genetic quality, but every ‘unit’ of physical attractiveness an offspring is willing to give up leads to a loss of 0.50 units of genetic quality.
Accordingly, parents would be willing to exchange more units of genetic quality for other traits, even if these are valued the same by their offspring. As genetic quality is more beneficial to offspring than it is to parents, the gain from other traits is not enough to compensate for its loss. Therefore, parents’ in-law choice inflicts a cost on offspring in the form of loss in genetic quality. Conversely, if offspring exercise mate choice, they will compromise more than their parents would like over other traits in order to get a spouse of high genetic quality. As genetic quality is less beneficial to parents than it is to offspring, the gain from this trait is not enough to compensate for the loss of other traits. Therefore, offspring’s mate choice inflicts a cost on parents in the form of loss in desirable traits.[3]
If both parties had identical preferences, they would make identical compromises, which is not optimal since traits do not give equal benefits to each party. Thus, both parents and offspring are expected to have evolved asymmetrical preferences for traits that give them asymmetrical benefits, because this enables them to make optimal choices.
So far, research has identified that parents and offspring disagree over beauty, family background, personality, religious background and mating strategies.[4][5][6][7]
- ^ Apostolou, M. (2007). Elements of parental choice: the evolution of parental preferences in relation to in-law selection. Evolutionary Psychology, 5, 70-83.
- ^ Apostolou, M. (2008a). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: the case of beauty. Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 303-315.
- ^ Apostolou, M. (2008a). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: the case of beauty. Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 303-315.
- ^ Apostolou, M. (2008a). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: the case of beauty. Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 303-315.
- ^ Apostolou, M. (2008b). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: the case of family background. Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 456-468.
- ^ Apostolou, M. (2009). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: the case of mating strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 895-899.
- ^ Buunk, A. P., Park, J. H. & Dubbs, S. L. (2008). Parent-offspring conflict in mate preferences. Review of General Psychology, 12, 47-62.