CURRENT IS SUES - P ERSPE CTI VES AND RE VI EWS Evolutionary Perspective on the Interplay Between Family Life, and Parent and Offspring Personality

Across the animal kingdom, individuals of the same species differ in their propensity to take risks, explore new environments, and to be active, aggressive or sociable; these behaviours are often correlated across individuals. Behaviours showing inter-individual variation but are consistent within individuals through time and across contexts are coined ‘personality’. When different personality traits are correlated across individuals, they are considered ‘behavioural syndromes’ (Sih et al. 2004; Réale et al. 2007; Biro & Stamps 2008; Sih & Bell 2008). Thus, while personality might exist in many populations, syndromes are often environment specific (e.g. Bell 2005; Dingemanse et al. 2007). Among the main research questions raised by this expanding field are how the covariances in behavioural traits are genetically and environmentally generated, how they are maintained evolutionarily, and what is their selective value under different ecological and social contexts (Dall et al. 2004; Sih et al. 2004; Réale et al. 2007; Sih & Bell 2008; Dingemanse et al. 2010; Schuett et al. 2010; Stamps & Groothuis 2010). Considering the family context, both as a potential source of (co) variation in behaviours and as a source of selection for combinations of behaviours expressed inside and outside the family context (i.e., ‘correlational selection’; e.g., Brodie 1992) should shed new light on these three main questions. Research on personality aims at conceptualizing from an evolutionary perspective, the common phenomenon that individuals differ markedly and consistently in behaviour. This implies that individuals Correspondence Alexandre Roulin, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected]