Margo Wilson facts for kids

Margo Wilson (1942 – 2009) was a Canadian scientist who studied how human behavior has changed over a very long time, like how we evolved. She was a professor of psychology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She was known for her important work in the field of evolutionary psychology and for her studies on violence.

About Margo Wilson

Wilson was born on October 1, 1942, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She spent her early years in a community called Fort McPherson. Her mother was a nurse there and helped many people.

Her Education

Margo Wilson went to the University of Alberta. She earned her first degree in psychology in 1964. After that, she studied how hormones affect behavior at the University of California. She then won a special scholarship called the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. This allowed her to study in England at University College London. She earned her PhD, which is a very high university degree, in 1972.

Her Career and Family

From 1972 to 1975, Wilson was a visiting professor at the University of Toronto. There, she met Martin Daly, who was also a psychologist. They later married. In 1978, they both moved to Hamilton when Daly started working at McMaster University. In the 1980s, Wilson also became a professor of Psychology at McMaster. She worked there for the rest of her life.

Awards and Recognition

Wilson was a respected leader in her field. In 1997, she was chosen to be the president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. For ten years, she and Martin Daly were the main editors of a science magazine called Evolution and Human Behavior. In 1998, she was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. This is a special honor for top Canadian scientists.

Margo Wilson passed away in Hamilton on September 24, 2009, after battling cancer. To remember her important work, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society created the Margo Wilson Award in 2009. This award is given for the best research paper published each year.

Her Research Work

In 1978, Margo Wilson had an idea. She suggested to Martin Daly that they could study patterns of violence, like homicides, to better understand human social behaviors. They wanted to see how these behaviors might have developed over time through evolution.

For the next 30 years, Wilson and Daly worked together on this research. They wrote several books and more than 100 academic papers and book chapters about their findings.

Key Books and Findings

Their first book on this topic, called Homicide, was published in 1988. It is considered a very important and classic book in the field of evolutionary psychology.

Their second book about homicide, The truth about Cinderella, came out in 1999. In this book, they shared their findings on what they called the Cinderella effect. This idea suggests that stepparents might be more likely to treat children unfairly compared to biological parents. They studied many cases to find these patterns.