Luo Liqun, Ding Rui, Gao Xiali, Sun Jingjing, Zhao Wei
Department of Sociology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
Hubei Institute of Economic and Social Development, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
PeerJ. 2017 Jun 30;5:e3546. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3546. eCollection 2017.
According to the logic of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, in a human population, if socioeconomic status is transmitted across generations to some extent, and if sons of high-status parents tend to have higher reproductive success than daughters, while daughters of low-status parents tend to have higher reproductive success than sons, then we should expect that offspring sex ratio is positively associated with socioeconomic status. This study examines whether the assumptions and prediction of this hypothesis apply to a rural population in northern China. Results show that (1) current family socioeconomic status is positively related to family head's father's socioeconomic status in around 1950, (2) low-status family heads have more grandchildren through their daughters than their sons, whereas high- or middle-status family heads have more grandchildren through sons, and (3) as family heads' status increases, they tend to produce a higher offspring sex ratio. Therefore, the assumptions and prediction of the hypothesis are met in the study population. These results are discussed in reference to past studies on sex ratio manipulation among humans.
根据特里弗斯-威拉德假说的逻辑，在人类群体中，如果社会经济地位在一定程度上代代相传，并且如果高地位父母的儿子往往比女儿具有更高的生殖成功率，而低地位父母的女儿往往比儿子具有更高的生殖成功率，那么我们应该预期后代性别比与社会经济地位呈正相关。本研究考察了该假说的假设和预测是否适用于中国北方的农村人口。结果表明：（1）当前家庭社会经济地位与1950年左右户主父亲的社会经济地位呈正相关；（2）低地位户主通过女儿拥有的孙辈比通过儿子的更多，而高地位或中等地位户主通过儿子拥有的孙辈更多；（3）随着户主地位的提高，他们往往会生育更高的后代性别比。因此，该假说的假设和预测在研究人群中得到了验证。结合过去关于人类性别比操纵的研究对这些结果进行了讨论。
