Altruistic Behavior among Twins |
| |
Authors: | Encarnación Tornero Juan F. Sánchez-Romera José J. Morosoli Alexandra Vázquez Ángel Gómez Juan R. Ordoñana |
| |
Affiliation: | 1.Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology,University of Murcia,Murcia,Spain;2.Department of Social and Organizational Psychology,National Distance Education University (UNED),Madrid,Spain;3.Murcia Institute for Biomedical Research (IMIB-Arrixaca-UMU),University Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca,Murcia,Spain |
| |
Abstract: | According to kin selection theory, indirect reproductive advantages may induce individuals to care for others with whom they share genes by common descent, and the amount of care, including self-sacrifice, will increase with the proportion of genes shared. Twins represent a natural situation in which this hypothesis can be tested. Twin pairs experience the same early environment because they were born and raised at the same time and in the same family but their genetic relatedness differs depending on zygosity. We compared the degree of willingness to fight and sacrifice for the co-twin among monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) pairs in a sample of 1443 same-sex and opposite-sex twins. We also analyzed the effect of the subject’s gender and that of the co-twin on those altruistic behaviors. Results partly supported the postulated explanation. MZ twins (who share nearly their entire genome) were significantly more likely than DZ twins (who on average share half of their segregating genes) to self-sacrifice for their co-twins, but zygosity did not affect willingness to fight for him/her. The genders of the subject and of the co-twin, not genetic relatedness, were the best predictors of aggressive altruistic intentions. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|