Testing the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis on Polish kings and dukes

Piotr Sorokowski; Marta Kowal; Piotr Badyna; Agnieszka Niemczyk; Maciej Karwowski; Sławomir Kozieł

doi:10.2478/anre-2019-0030

Authors

Piotr Sorokowski Department of Experimental Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland
Marta Kowal Department of Experimental Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland
Piotr Badyna Department of Economic History, Demography and Statistics, Institute of History, University of Wrocław, Poland
Agnieszka Niemczyk Department of Experimental Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland
Maciej Karwowski Department of Experimental Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland
Sławomir Kozieł Department of Anthropology, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wrocław, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/anre-2019-0030

Keywords:

Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH), evolutionary psychology, social status, children, sex ratio

Abstract

The Trivers-Willard Hypothesis (TWH), frequently investigated by evolutionary psychologists, states that human beings may have evolved to produce a greater number of sons when having a high status, and a greater number of daughters when having a low status. To test this hypothesis, we examined the sex of children of Polish high status: kings, dukes, magnates families; and of low status: peasants, burghers and gentry. Our findings do not provide evidence for the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis (TWH), as there were no differences between offspring’s sex ratio among any of the investigated social classes (with the exception of magnates families). We draw our conclusions with caution, as historical data carry many limitations.