The Nature of Parent-Offspring Conflict over Mating: from Differences in Genetic Relatedness to Disagreement over Mate Choice

Parents and children are genetically related, but they are not genetically identical. This difference leads to diverging interests and ensuing conflict. There are two, not mutual exclusive, hypotheses that propose to account for how the divergence in genetic interests leads to conflict over mating, namely the compromises in traits and the evolutionary trade-offs. The present paper attempts to demonstrate that the compromises in trait hypothesis can account for this conflict, but the evolutionary trade-off hypothesis cannot. It also aims to combine insights from the two hypotheses in order to provide a better account of the nature of parent-offspring conflict over mating. In the proposed synthesis, compromises in desirable traits lead to parent-offspring conflict over mating, with evolutionary trade-offs regulating the degree of this conflict depending on the sex of the child exercising mate choice and the local conditions.