Group selection and kin selection: Two concepts but one process

Group selection and kin selection: two concepts but one process.

In a recent paper, Traulsen and Nowak use a multilevel selection model to show that cooperation can be favored by group selection in finite populations [Traulsen A, Nowak M (2006) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:10952-10955]. The authors challenge the view that kin selection may be an appropriate interpretation of their results and state that group selection is a distinctive process "that permeates ...

Kin Selection, Group Selection, and the Varieties of Population Structure

Various results show the ‘formal equivalence’ of kin and group selectionist methodologies, but this does not preclude there being a real and useful distinction between kin and group selection processes. I distinguish individualand population-centred approaches to drawing such a distinction, and I proceed to develop the latter. On the account I advance, the differences between kin and group sele...

Group Selection and Reciprocity among Kin

The question how Darwinian mechanisms lead to the evolution of individually costly cooperative behavior has given rise to a number of hypotheses. However, attempts to build a synthesis where different types of mechanisms coexist and interact at different levels of selections are still scarce. Here we derive simple game theoretical models where the group level conflicts are resolved by group sel...

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...