Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 8 February 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5864, pp. 813 - 816
DOI: 10.1126/science.1150232
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

An Association Between the Kinship and Fertility of Human Couples

Agnar Helgason,1,2* Snæbjörn Pálsson,1,3 Daníel F. Guðbjartsson,1 þórður Kristjánsson,1 Kári Stefánsson1,4

Previous studies have reported that related human couples tend to produce more children than unrelated couples but have been unable to determine whether this difference is biological or stems from socioeconomic variables. Our results, drawn from all known couples of the Icelandic population born between 1800 and 1965, show a significant positive association between kinship and fertility, with the greatest reproductive success observed for couples related at the level of third and fourth cousins. Owing to the relative socioeconomic homogeneity of Icelanders, and the observation of highly significant differences in the fertility of couples separated by very fine intervals of kinship, we conclude that this association is likely to have a biological basis.

1 deCODE Genetics, Sturlugata 8, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland.
2 Department of Anthropology, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland.
3 Department of Biology, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland.
4 Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: agnar{at}decode.is

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
What has happened to human fertility?.
M. Joffe (2009)
Hum. Reprod.
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Human ability to detect kinship in strangers' faces: effects of the degree of relatedness.
G. Kaminski, S. Dridi, C. Graff, and E. Gentaz (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 3193-3200
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Comment on "An Association Between the Kinship and Fertility of Human Couples".
R. Labouriau and A. Amorim (2008)
Science 322, 1634b
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Response to Comments on "An Association Between the Kinship and Fertility of Human Couples".
A. Helgason, S. Palsson, D. F. Guthbjartsson, T. Kristjansson, and K. Stefansson (2008)
Science 322, 1634c
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)