biology

Margo Wilson

Margo Wilson is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Margo Wilson rather than just read about it. In short: Margo Wilson (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.

Key takeaways

Margo Wilson belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Margo Wilson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Margo Wilson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Margo Wilson (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.

Biography Wilson was born on October 1, 1942, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She spent her childhood years in the Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson, where her mother, a nurse, provided medical services. She attended the University of Alberta, graduating with an undergraduate degree in psychology in 1964. 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. 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. Together, they moved to Hamilton in 1978 after Daly was hired by McMaster University. In the 1980s, Wilson was appointed professor of Psychology at McMaster, where she remained for the rest of her career. Wilson was elected president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 1997. With Daly, she was, for 10 years, the editor-in-chief of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior,. In 1998, she was named a fellow of the Royal Society. Wilson died in Hamilton on September 24, 2009, of cancer. 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.

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

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 Cinderella effect Evolutionary psychology Human Behavior and Evolution Society Martin Daly

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Margo Wilson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Margo Wilson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Margo Wilson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Margo Wilson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Margo Wilson

In research: Margo Wilson appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Margo Wilson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Margo Wilson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, 2009 deaths, 20th-century Canadian psychologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Margo Wilson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Margo Wilson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Margo Wilson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Margo Wilson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Margo Wilson in simple terms?

Why does Margo Wilson matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Margo Wilson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Margo Wilson.