Biography:Margo Wilson

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Short description: Canadian psychologist (1942–2009)

Margo Wilson FRSC (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.[1]

Biography

Wilson was born on October 1, 1942, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.[2] She spent her childhood years in the Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson, where her mother, a nurse, provided medical services.[3] She attended the University of Alberta, graduating with an undergraduate degree in psychology in 1964.[2] She then studied behavioural endocrinology at the University of California and, after winning the a Commonwealth Scholarship, at University College London, England , where she earned her PhD in 1972.[2][3]

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.[2][4] Together, they moved to Hamilton in 1978 after Daly was hired by McMaster University.[2] In the 1980s, Wilson was appointed professor of Psychology at McMaster, where she remained for the rest of her career.[2]

Wilson was elected president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 1997.[3] With Daly, she was, for 10 years, the editor-in-chief of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior,.[4] In 1998, she was named a fellow of the Royal Society.[2]

Wilson died in Hamilton on September 24, 2009, of cancer.[2] 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.[5][6]

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.[4] 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.[7][4]

Their first book on this topic, Homicide (1988),[8] has been described as a "founding"[9] and "classic"[4] text for the field of evolutionary psychology. Their second book on homicide, The truth about Cinderella (1999),[10] summarized their findings on the Cinderella effect, which suggests that stepparents are more likely to mistreat children than biological parents.[11]

Selected bibliography

(All books co-authored with Martin Daly)

  • Sex, Evolution, and Behaviour, Brooks Cole, 1978 (2nd edition 1983), ISBN:978-0871507679
  • Homicide: Foundations of Human Behavior, Aldine Transaction, 1988, ISBN:978-0202011783
  • The truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian view of parental love, Yale, 1999, ISBN:9780300080292

See also

References

  1. Surbey, Michele K. (2016), "Martin Daly and Margo Wilson (Founders of Evolutionary Psychology)", in Weekes-Shackelford, Viviana; Shackelford, Todd K.; Weekes-Shackelford, Viviana A. (in en), Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–9, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3583-1, ISBN 978-3-319-16999-6 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Belluz, Julia (2009-10-15). "Margo Wilson's research shed light on evolutionary psychology". The Globe & Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/margo-wilsons-research-shed-light-on-evolutionary-psychology/article1203620/. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Daly, Martin (2012). "Margo Wilson, 1942-2009" (in en). Homicide Studies 16 (4): 329–331. doi:10.1177/1088767912457171. ISSN 1088-7679. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Krupp, Daniel Brian; Barclay, Pat (2010). "Margo Wilson (1942–2009)" (in en). Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 8 (1): 1–3. doi:10.1556/JEP.8.2010.1.1. ISSN 1789-2082. 
  5. "Awards" (in en-US). https://www.hbes.com/awards/. 
  6. Mesoudi, Alex (2012). "Announcement: Margo Wilson Prize" (in en). Evolution and Human Behavior 33 (5): 428. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.07.001. 
  7. "Margo Wilson's research shed light on evolutionary psychology" by Julia Belluz, The Globe and Mail, October 1, 2009
  8. Daly, Martin; Wilson, Margo (1988). Homicide. Wilson, Margo.. New York: A. de Gruyter. ISBN 0-202-01177-1. OCLC 16714351. 
  9. Jones, Dan (2008-01-01). "Human behaviour: Killer instincts" (in en). Nature 451 (7178): 512–515. doi:10.1038/451512a. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 18235473. Bibcode2008Natur.451..512J. 
  10. Daly, Martin; Wilson, Margo (1999). The truth about Cinderella : a Darwinian view of parental love. Wilson, Margo.. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08029-8. OCLC 41419567. https://archive.org/details/truthaboutcinder00mart. 
  11. Nobes, Gavin; Panagiotaki, Georgia (2018-09-24). "The Cinderella effect: are stepfathers dangerous?" (in en). http://theconversation.com/the-cinderella-effect-are-stepfathers-dangerous-103707.