Robert Trivers

Robert Trivers

Robert L. Trivers ( /ˈtrɪvərz/; born February 19, 1943) is an American evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist, who is a Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. Trivers proposed the theories of reciprocal altruism (1971), parental investment (1972), facultative sex ratio determination (1973), and parent-offspring conflict (1974). He has also contributed by explaining self-deception as an adaptive evolutionarily strategy (first described in 1976) and discussing intragenomic conflict.