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Related Concept Videos

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Evolutionary psychology explores the origins of human behavior and mental processes by framing them within the context of natural selection, a theory famously propounded by Charles Darwin. This field asserts that many behaviors common across human societies — ranging from instinctive fear reactions to complex social interactions — arose as evolutionary adaptations. These adaptations enhanced the survival and reproductive success of our ancestors, thereby becoming embedded in the...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 22, 2025

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses
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Paternal provisioning results from ecological change.

Ingela Alger1,2,3, Paul L Hooper4,5, Donald Cox6

  • 1Toulouse School of Economics, TSE-R CNRS (UMR5314), 31080 Toulouse Cedex 6, France; ingela.alger@tse-fr.eu hkaplan@chapman.edu.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|May 3, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Ecological shifts, not just female choice, likely explain the evolution of paternal provisioning in humans. Increased access to valuable foods created incentives for males to invest in offspring, overcoming risks of paternity uncertainty.

Keywords:
cooperationfatherhoodhuman evolutionparental investmentpaternal care

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Anthropology
  • Human Behavioral Ecology
  • Primate Evolution

Background:

  • Paternal provisioning is rare in primates and absent in nonhuman apes, posing an evolutionary puzzle.
  • Emergent paternal provisioning in early humans faced challenges from 'cads' who benefit from non-provisioning mating strategies.
  • Previous models emphasized complex female choice mechanisms to resolve the social dilemma of male provisioning.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose an alternative hypothesis for the evolution of human paternal provisioning, focusing on ecological factors.
  • To theoretically model how ecological changes can overcome social obstacles to male provisioning.
  • To investigate the conditions under which paternal provisioning becomes a viable strategy despite paternity uncertainty.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling to simulate the fitness trade-offs between provisioning ('dad') and non-provisioning ('cad') male strategies.
  • Analysis of how increased availability of energetically rich, difficult-to-acquire foods impacts male provisioning incentives.
  • Exploration of game theory dynamics involving male provisioning, female choice, and paternity uncertainty.

Main Results:

  • Ecological changes that enhance the value of difficult-to-acquire foods can create strong incentives for male provisioning.
  • These ecological factors increase female-male and male-male complementarities, shifting the fitness balance towards provisioning males.
  • A tipping point exists where provisioning benefits outweigh paternity uncertainty costs, making the 'dad' strategy evolutionarily stable, potentially alongside 'cads'.

Conclusions:

  • Ecological change, specifically increased access to high-value foods, is a primary driver for the emergence of paternal provisioning in hominins.
  • This ecological shift provides a more parsimonious explanation than complex female choice models alone.
  • Future research can utilize paleo-climatic, archaeological, and genomic data to pinpoint the timing and environmental conditions of paternal provisioning's evolution.