Kin Selection as the Key to Altruism: Its Rise and Fall
By Edward O. Wilson. Social research, 2005
144 citations recorded by the source corpus.
ONE OF THE ENDURING UNSETTLED ISSUES OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY is th e paradox o f collateral altruistic behavior—th a t is, w hen some individuals subordinate their own interests and those of their immedi ate offspring in order to serve the interests o f a larger group beyond offspring (Wilson, 1975). How m ight such behavior evolve if the genes prom oting it are at such a disadvantage in com petition w ith genes th at oppose it? Charles Darwin saw th at the paradox was dangerous to his theory of evolution by natural selection. He was particularly concerned by the social behavior of ants. Not only do flagrantly selfless individuals exist, but they form distinct w orker castes, which in some species are subdi vided further into specialized subcastes—for example, large, aggressive (but sterile) soldiers and small nurses and foragers. How could such crea tures come into existence if they never reproduce? Darwin solved the dilemma to his own satisfaction and th at of other biologists for nearly a hundred years by noting th at if the combined offspring of the queen ant formed a colony th at allowed her to produce more offspring than could an otherwise comparable solitaiy female, sterile castes would evolve as part of the variation o f a single hereditaiy type. That hereditaiy type, not the plastic forms it produces, is therefore the unit o f selection. The altru istic castes, he said, are like the well-flavored vegetable part in a single crop strain produced by selective breeding (Darwin, 1859). In 1932 and again in 1955 J. B. S. Haldane, one o f the founders o f the m odem genetic theoiy o f evolution, put a new tw ist on the altru
Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Sociology and Political Science
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Citations in the corpus
- The road to everywhere : Evolution, complexity and progress in natural and artificial systems (2008, background): “individuals: tightly bound groups, such as certain insect colonies, may behave in this fashion [189].”