Are elder siblings helpers or competitors? Antagonistic fitness effects of sibling interactions in humans

: Nitsch A, Faurie C, Lummaa V

Publisher: ROYAL SOC

: 2013

: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

: P ROY SOC B-BIOL SCI

: ARTN 20122313

: 280

: 1750

: 9

: 0962-8452

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.2313

Determining the fitness consequences of sibling interactions is pivotal for understanding the evolution of family living, but studies investigating them across lifetime are lacking. We used a large demographic dataset on preindustrial humans from Finland to study the effect of elder siblings on key life-history traits. The presence of elder siblings improved the chances of younger siblings surviving to sexual maturity, suggesting that despite a competition for parental resources, they may help rearing their younger siblings. After reaching sexual maturity however, same-sex elder siblings' presence was associated with reduced reproductive success in the focal individual, indicating the existence of competition among same-sex siblings. Overall, lifetime fitness was reduced by same-sex elder siblings' presence and increased by opposite-sex elder siblings' presence. Our study shows opposite effects of sibling interactions depending on the life-history stage, and highlights the need for using long-term fitness measures to understand the selection pressures acting on sibling interactions.