What is the concept of evolutionary cost?

Question

What is the concept of evolutionary cost?

Answer 1

Large concept, so I will give one example. The cost of an altruistic act for a relative is based on giving a benefit now against giving a benefit to a later progeny. Women unconsciously weigh these decisions when have offspring. At least the had to in our evolutionary past.

Say you bore a child that was sickly in the Pleistocene era. You would have to weigh the cost/benefit of bringing this child to reproductive age against the cost/ benefit of abandoning the child and starting afresh. This was practiced recently in human history and is even practiced now. In China there was problems with abortions and murders of baby girls because parents wanted to invest in sons.

This is merely a description of how people can behave, not how they ought to behave.