A Kin Selection Paradox

Kin Selection

Kin selection

How can individuals calculate relatedness? They generally don’t need to, any more than a bird needs to calculate aerodynamic forces to fly. If, under certain conditions, performing a behavior satisfies Hamilton’s rule, then the action is favored. The triggering conditions may include cues to relatedness, which are usually based on social experience. A bee, for example, learns the smell of her b...

How to make a kin selection model.

Kin selection arguments, based on Hamilton's (1964) concept of inclusive fitness, provide a powerful heuristic and can therefore give us valuable insights into the different pathways through which natural selection acts. But their formulation can be quite tricky, requiring as they do, a close accounting of all the fitness effects of a particular item of behaviour. Here we propose a "direct fitn...

Kin Selection and Its Critics

Hamilton’s theory of kin selection is the best-known framework for understanding the evolution of social behavior but has long been a source of controversy in evolutionary biology. A recent critique of the theory by Nowak, Tarnita, and Wilson sparked a new round of debate, which shows no signs of abating. In this overview, we highlight a number of conceptual issues that lie at the heart of the ...

Kin-Selection: The Rise and Fall of Kin-Cheaters

We demonstrate the existence of altruism via kin selection in artificial life and explore its nuances. We do so in the Avida system through a setup that is based on the behavior of colicinogenic bacteria: Organisms can kill unrelated organisms in a given radius but must kill themselves to do so. Initially, we confirm results found in the bacterial world: Digital organisms do sacrifice themselve...