Family and Kinship

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Family and Kinship

• Isaiah Magpali-Isaac
• Tatiana Hughes
• Tanisha Tatum

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Video

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vWimixexiiPE
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vh-MeRDfMvK0

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Introduction

• Altruism has always been a puzzle for Evolution
• This article hypothesizes that we have heuristics
  for decisions that involve altruism.
• As we know natural selection favors those who are
  prone to help others with the same genes.
• The closer the person is related to you, the more
  likely you are to help them.

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Introduction cont.

• Inclusive Fitness- by helping genetic kin to
  survive and reproduce, your shared genes can
  spread.
• In regards to altruism, a Heuristic evolved to
  help us figure out who to help, according to how
  closely related they are to us.
• The article examines this heuristic by measuring
  how we perceive our relatedness to different
  relatives, vs. how close they are actually
  related to us.

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Background/Objectives

• Background
• People can discriminate between close relatives
  and moderately close relatives (mother vs. aunt)
• Webers law Differences between close kin appear
  greater than differences between distant kin.
• Objectives
• Determine the relationship between perceived and
  actual kinship

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Subjects/Procedures/Methods

• Subjects
• 26 undergraduates from University of Michigan
• Procedures
• Subjects asked to indicate how closely related
  the felt to kin (close to distant to fictive)
• Fictive stepparents, acquaintances
• 19 Question Questionnaire
• 1 for genetically identical (twins r1.00)
• 4 for very close (mother, father, sister, etc.
  r0.50)
• 6 for moderately close (aunt, uncle, grandmother,
  etc. r0.25)
• 3 for distant relatives (cousin,
  great-grandmother, etc. r0.125)
• 4 for fictive kin (stepparent, acquaintance
  r0.00)
• Use of ANOVA and Dunnes test to analyze data

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Results
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Results (cont.)

• ANOVA indicated a significant decline in
  perceived relatedness with actual relatedness.
• Dunnes test demonstrates drop in perceived
  relatedness between each pair of adjacent points
  was reliable
• Most precipitous declines occurred between
• Very close and moderately close kin
• And between distant kin and acquaintances

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Results (cont.)

• What does mean for helping behaviors?
• If our decision to help someone is based off of
  perceived relatedness, kinship should have
  greatest impact when one person is very close or
  unrelated.
• We have heuristic thinking when it comes to
  inclusive fitness that says Help those most
  closely related to you who have the greatest
  reproductive value

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Study Strengths

• Use well defined hierarchy of kin closeness.
• Accurately measured the perceptions vs. the
  actual levels of kinship.

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Study Weaknesses

• Some people may not have any connection for
  distant relatives.
• How close they feel towards them could be
  effected.
• Questionnaire does not have an equal number of
  questions for each level of kin.
• Limited number of subjects (26)

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Quiz

• Multiple Choice
• What is the r value for distant relatives as
  defined by the study?
• A) .125
• B) .50
• C) .00
• How many levels of actual kinship were studied?
• A) 3
• B) 4
• C) 5
• D) 6
• Who are you more inclined to help in dangerous
  situations?
• A) Your Aunt
• B) Your cousin
• C) Your grandfather
• B) Your second cousin

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Quiz (cont.)

• True or False
• The study set out to determine the relationship
  between perceived and actual kinship. T/F
• The least abrupt declines occurred between very
  close kin and moderately close kin and between
  distant kin and acquaintances. T/F
• In terms of the results, you are more likely to
  save your sister than you are to save your than 2
  of your cousins. T/F

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Reference

• Burnstein, E., Crandall, C., Kitayama, S.
  (1994) Some Neo-Darwinian Decision Rules for
  Altruism Weighing Cues for Inclusive Fitness as
  a Function of the Biological Importance of the
  Decision. Journal of Personality and Social
  Psychology, 67, 779.