The Truth about Cinderella; A Darwinian View of Parental Love

A child is one hundred times more likely to be abused or killed by a stepparent than by a genetic parent, say two scientists in this startling book. Martin Daly and Margo Wilson show that the mistreatment of stepchildren, long a staple of folktales, has a solid basis in fact. Daly and Wilson apply the perspective of evolutionary psychology to investigate why stepparenthood is different from genetic parenthood and why steprelationships succeed or fail. Book jacket.

Martin Daly and Margo Wilson are professors of psychology at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.