Margo Wilson

Margo Wilson was a Canadian evolutionary psychologist and professor at McMaster University noted for pioneering work applying evolutionary theory to the study of violence. Over three decades of collaborative research she analyzed homicide patterns to understand human social behavior from an evolutionary perspective, co-authoring the widely cited 1988 book Homicide, and her research documented the Cinderella effect, the finding that stepparents are statistically more likely to mistreat children than biological parents. She served as president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 1997 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1998.