Biology 1001A Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Reciprocal Altruism, Inclusive Fitness, Kin Selection
Document Summary
Cycle 8 (bio 1001a) whether a particular social behaviour represents cooperation, competition (selfishness), spite or altruism. Altruism: decreases the fitness of the actor and increases fitness of receiver. There are not many cases in which an act decreases the fitness of both the actor and the recipient, other than in rare human interactions (terrorist bombings, wars, etc) how kin selection theory explains the persistence of helpful behaviour. If you help out a relative by altruism, you"re increasing your gene representation in the world. Like how wolves will not have their own children until they"ve helped raise their siblings because their siblings are more closely related to them than their children would be. Increasing your gene representation indirectly, which in turn will increase the individual"s inclusive fitness (direct fitness+indirect fitness=inclusive fitness) situations in which kin selection does, or does not, favour helping non-descendant relatives.
