Margo Wilson

Template:Short description Margo Wilson Template:Post-nominals (1942–2009) was a Canadian evolutionary psychologist. She was a professor of psychology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, noted for her pioneering work in the field of evolutionary psychology and her contributions to the study of violence.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Biography

Wilson was born on October 1, 1942, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> She spent her childhood years in the Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson, where her mother, a nurse, provided medical services.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> She attended the University of Alberta, graduating with an undergraduate degree in psychology in 1964.<ref name=":1" /> She then studied behavioural endocrinology at the University of California and, after winning a Commonwealth Scholarship, at University College London, England, where she earned her PhD in 1972.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

From 1972 through 1975, she was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Toronto, where she met her future husband, fellow psychologist Martin Daly.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> Together, they moved to Hamilton in 1978 after Daly was hired by McMaster University.<ref name=":1" /> In the 1980s, Wilson was appointed professor of Psychology at McMaster, where she remained for the rest of her career.<ref name=":1" />

Wilson was elected president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 1997.<ref name=":2" /> With Daly, she was, for 10 years, the editor-in-chief of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior,.<ref name=":0" /> In 1998, she was named a fellow of the Royal Society.<ref name=":1" />

Wilson died in Hamilton on September 24, 2009, of cancer.<ref name=":1" /> In 2009, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society established the Margo Wilson Award (for best paper published in the previous year) to honour her contributions to the field.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Research

In 1978, Wilson proposed the idea to Daly that they could analyze patterns of homicide to better understand humans' social behaviours from an evolutionary perspective.<ref name=":0" /> For the next 30 years, Wilson and Daly collaborated on this research, authoring several books and over 100 academic papers and book chapters in this area.<ref name="glo">"Margo Wilson's research shed light on evolutionary psychology" by Julia Belluz, The Globe and Mail, October 1, 2009</ref><ref name=":0" />

Their first book on this topic, Homicide (1988),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> has been described as a "founding"<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and "classic"<ref name=":0" /> text for the field of evolutionary psychology. Their second book on homicide, The truth about Cinderella (1999),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> summarized their findings on the Cinderella effect, which suggests that stepparents are more likely to mistreat children than biological parents.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Selected bibliography

(All books co-authored with Martin Daly)

• Sex, Evolution, and Behaviour, Brooks Cole, 1978 (2nd edition 1983), Template:ISBN
• Homicide: Foundations of Human Behavior, Aldine Transaction, 1988, Template:ISBN
• The truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian view of parental love, Yale, 1999, Template:ISBN

See also

• Cinderella effect
• Evolutionary psychology
• Human Behavior and Evolution Society
• Martin Daly

References

Template:Reflist