In evolutionary psychology, the Cinderella effect is the alleged higher incident of different forms of child-abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents. It takes its name from the fairy tale character Cinderella. Evolutionary psychologists describe the effect as a remnant of an adaptive reproductive strategy among primates where males frequently kill the offspring of other males in order to bring their mothers into estrus, and give the male a chance to fertilize her himself. The theory has been criticized for being speculative and for being based on erroneous data and flawed reasoning.
Read more about Cinderella Effect: Background, Evolutionary Psychology Theory, Supportive Evidence, Conclusion
Famous quotes containing the words cinderella and/or effect:
“The prince was getting tired.
He began to feel like a shoe salesman.
But he gave it one last try.
This time Cinderella fit into the shoe
like a love letter into its envelope.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)