有些科學家真的很無聊耶

有些科學家真的很無聊耶，當然不是全部啦 (笑)，不然我想當人類行為學家的夢想，不就變成無聊之夢！

有一篇早期的文章：
http://www.natureasia.com/taiwan/nature/updates/index.php?i=5877&issue=7031

標題叫做：血緣關係與人類行為

大家恐怕要花一點時間耐心看完介紹：

“南非綜合家庭調查”收集在該國第一次民主選舉於1994年4月舉行之前9個月大約9000個家庭的資料。該調查的主要目的是，收集關於生活標準的資料，供決策者參考，但也要為社會學家和人類學家提供一個獨特的數據庫。


Bowles和Dorit在對“Inclusive Fitness Models”預測人類行為的能力所進行的一項測試中完成了這項工作。來自非洲農村家庭的流動礦工寄錢給自己家里，研究人員將所觀察到的匯款數額與預測的匯款數額進行比較，來判斷什麼是最適當利益，結果表明，流動礦工與收款人在血緣關係上的遠近是預測匯款數額的因素之一。可見，血緣關係在這裡是一個因素，但只是很多因素之一。

請注意：

結果表明，流動礦工與收款人在血緣關係上的遠近是預測匯款數額的因素之一。

這表示，一般狀況下，匯給妳媽的錢比妳表親的要多。這不是廢話嗎！
唉呦喂呀~ 這結果還真不出意料之外。

原文如下：

Nature 434, 380-383 (17 March 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature03420; Received 15 November 2004; Accepted 31 January 2005

Genetic relatedness predicts South African migrant workers' remittances to their families

S. Bowles¹ & D. Posel²

1. Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Rd, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA; and Università degli Studi di Siena, Piazza San Francesco, Siena 53100, Italy
2. University of KwaZulu-Natal, King George V Avenue, Durban 4001, South Africa

Correspondence to: D. Posel² Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to D.P. (Email: posel@ukzn.ac.za).

Topof page

Abstract

Inclusive fitness models^1, 2 predict many commonly observed behaviours: among humans, studies of within-household violence³, the allocation of food^4, 5 and child care⁶ find that people favour those to whom they are more closely related. In some cases however, kin-altruism effects appear to be modest^7,8, 9. Do individuals favour kin to the extent that kin-altruism models predict? Data on remittances sent by South African migrant workers to their rural households of origin allow an explicit test, to our knowledge the first of its kind for humans. Using estimates of the fitness benefits and costs associated with the remittance, the genetic relatedness of the migrant to the beneficiaries of the transfer, and their age- and sex-specific reproductive values, we estimate the level of remittance that maximizes the migrant worker's inclusive fitness. This is a much better predictor of observed remittances than is average relatedness, even when we take account (by means of a multiple regression) of covarying influences on the level of remittance. But the effect is modest: less than a third of the observed level of remittances can be explained by our kin-altruism model.