Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals
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.
Authors
- Rita Anne McNamara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8530-768X)
- Jennifer E. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3342-4454)
- David A. Nolin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7294-8322)
- Karen B. Strier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2520-9110)
- Susan Perry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5306-5383)
- Emily E. Wroblewski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3032-6514)
- Shane A. Scaggs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1223-8588)
- Samuel S. Urlacher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-4117)
- Janet Headland
- Bret Beheim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4653-3155)
- Kai P. Willführ (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4207-3016)
- Jonathan Salerno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9402-6479)
- Russell D. Greaves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1413-4187)
- Abigail E. Page (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0973-1569)
- Kathryn S. Oths (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7832-457X)
- Brian M. Wood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8187-9429)
- Eleanor A. Power (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-2050)
- Thomas N. Headland
- Ruizhe Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1829-8963)
- Rebecca Sear (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4315-0223)
- Dimitris Xygalatas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1561-9327)
- Adam H. Boyette (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0306-6841)
- Christopher von Rueden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3225-5791)
- Cristina Moya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7100-9115)
- Fatema Tuz Zohora (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6087-0425)
- Mary K. Shenk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2002-1469)
- Claudia Valeggia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-6890)
- Roberto Lizarralde
- Edmond Seabright (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3804-8010)
- Angelina L. DeMarco
- Ryan Schacht (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4606-7345)
- Bapu Vaitla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4594-0891)
- Mark Dyble (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6861-1631)
- Adrian V. Jaeggi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1695-0388)
- Michael Gurven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5661-527X)
- Kara K. Walker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7462-8453)
- Seung-Yun Oh
- Heidi Colleran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2126-8116)
- Emma Cohen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5465-3440)
- Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9536-3856)
- Daniel Nettle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9089-2599)
- Gianluca Grimalda
- Siobhán M. Mattison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9537-5459)
- Benjamin Grant Purzycki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9595-7360)
- Bruce Winterhalder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6560-3302)
- Chelsea Carminito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0432-3865)
- Claire El Mouden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8326-8381)
- Mary C. Towner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0784-1860)
- Joseph Lanning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0206-1571)
- Quentin D. Atkinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8499-7535)
- Samuli Helle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6216-3759)
- Barry S. Hewlett
- Luís Pacheco-Cobos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0992-6905)
- Nurul Alam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1202-4451)
- Karen L. Kramer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9157-7758)
- Brooke A. Scelza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5875-8875)
- Cody T. Ross (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0067-4799)
- Eckart Voland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2283-2735)
- Sheina Lew‐Levy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1250-6418)
- Sergey Gavrilets (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1581-4018)
- Eric Alden Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9482-9666)
- Jenni E. Pettay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7768-5883)
- Caissa Revilla‐Minaya
- Richard McElreath (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0387-5377)
- Christopher D. Golden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2258-7493)
- Hillard S Kaplan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7398-7358)
- Shane J. Macfarlan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6332-9829)
- Sean S. Downey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7671-6759)
- Daniel Redhead (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2809-8121)
- Lawrence S. Sugiyama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1279-0006)
- Anne C. Pisor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5780-4542)
- Samuel Bowles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6068-4430)
- Aiyana K. Willard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9224-7534)
- Coren L. Apicella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9661-6998)
- Helen Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8880-354X)
- Anne E. Pusey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2280-8954)
- Mhairi A. Gibson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7963-4759)
- Julia Clark
- Karl Mertens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2456-1262)
- Felicia C. Madimenos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5442-232X)
- Frank W. Marlowe
- John P. Ziker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9059-5594)
- Virpi Lummaa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2128-7587)
- John Andrew Bunce (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4092-485X)
- Stephen Beckerman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7830-175X)
- Tami Blumenfield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5833-0123)
- Kathrine Starkweather (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1554-4567)
- Andrea Bamberg Migliano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-2735)
- Irene Godoy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4405-226X)
- Eric Massengill
- Patricia Draper
- Carmen Cortez
- Gregory Clark (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6972-4478)
- Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1117-5984)
- Mark A. Caudell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4456-3318)
- Paul W. Leslie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9856-4602)
- Chun‐Yi Sum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6507-9184)
- Paul L. Hooper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4673-7513)
- Stefani A. Crabtree (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8585-8943)
- Kim Hill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1994-8091)
- Jeremy Koster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7291-6478)
- Melissa A. Liebert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8013-6773)
- Daniel Major‐Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6467-2023)
- A. Magdalena Hurtado
Institutions
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- UNC Libraries
- Published
- 2025-03-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.17615/4mav-9302
- Primary Topic
- Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00