Publication year: 2009 Source: Developmental Review, Volume 29, Issue 3, September 2009, Pages 163-179 Werner Greve, David F. Bjorklund We extend an evolutionary perspective of development to the lifespan, proposing that human longevity may be related to the experience, knowledge, and wisdom provided by older members of human groups. In addition to the assistance in childcare provided by grandmothers to their daughters, the experience of wise elders could have served to benefit kin as well as members of the immediate group, and thus been the target of natural selection. We refer to the fitness-enhancing effect of cumulative and integrative knowledge of some members of a group as theNestor effect, after the oldest member of the group of Greek kings in the siege of Troy
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The Nestor effect: Extending evolutionary developmental psychology to a lifespan perspective