This paper lists and refutes 12 of the commonest misunderstandings, for example. Kin selection the donor is actually aiding the spread of its own genotype by helping relatives. Kin selection definition of kin selection by medical dictionary. Kin altruism can look like altruistic behaviour whose evolution is driven by kin selection. Kin selection theory has thrived in the explanation of a wide variety of biological phenomena, chiefly the evolution of biological altruism as that found in sterile castes of eusocial insects. Kin selection theory ks is widely invoked to account for the preferential treatment of kin nepotismin primate societies. This approach does not account for all alleles affected by altruistic behavior. By showing the importance ofgenetic transmission through nondescendent relatives, it. Both mechanisms operating together should influence the evolution of cooperation. This paper is a comparative analysis of kin selection theory and empathy altruism model, in predicting altruistic behavior. The theory suggests that altruism towards close relatives occurs in order to ensure the continuation of shared genes. Pdf constructs a theoretical framework within which various models. We suggest that kin selection hamilton, 1964 plays a role in flight formations of related birds. More creepy, given the choice between saving your child or your grandparent, theory predicts you should save your child because your childs potential future.
A bibliography of 334 references on kin selection theory and kinship behavior is presented. Kin selection is a way of understanding allele frequency change as a consequence of the actions and interactions among individuals who share alleles by recent common descent ie, kin. Kin selection is based on inclusive fitness, the idea that, for example, sterile workers can accrue reproductive benefits by helping their relatives. The theory of kin selection, first articulated by hamilton 1964, provides a solution to the problem. Uncovering these errors makes it clear that his ideas are not true alternatives to kin selection theory, and that the e. Because this idea is so pervasive the role of ks is often unquestioned and optional mechanisms are often ignored. A well known example of kin selection in operation is the study of alarm calls in squirrels by paul sherman 1977. The basics of kin selection theory kin selection theory has its origins in attempt to unlock the puzzle of why some organisms have evolved to help other organisms of the same species. However, kin selection and group selection are not distinct processes, and the effects of multilevel selection are already accounted for in hamiltons rule, rbc, provided that an expanded definition of r, not requiring hamiltons original assumption of direct genealogical relatedness, is used, as proposed by e.
Mate number, kin selection and social conflicts in. By eliminating the gene from the theory of kin selection, i clarify the role that it plays in the theory of social adaptation. Kin selection is one of those special considerations derived from selfish gene theory that postulates that it is the degree of relatedness between organisms that will determine the likelihood that altruistic actions will occur. Kin selection is a special, complex kind of natural selection, as opposed to individual selection. Kinselection theory hamiltons genetical theory explains how aid that is selfsacrificing in terms of classical individual fitness, or altruism, can evolve if sufficiently beneficial to relatives. Hamiltons rule captures this basic separation, and hence appears to have the same generality and explanatory power as the theory of natural selection itself. Kin selection is an instance of inclusive fitness, which is based on the notion that an individual shares only half its genes with each offspring, but also with each full sib see footnote. This can be corrected by focusing on matings rather than on. Combining psychological mediators with naturally selected tendencies daniel j. Queuer department ofecology andevolutionary biology, rice university, p. Strassmann social insects so dominate many terrestrial habitats wilson 1990 that they can hardly es cape the attention of biologists, but even if they were rare, they would. Journal of theoretical biology 245 2007 2636 the evolution of altruism. Sep 25, 2016 charles darwin discussed the concept of kin selection in his 1859 book, the origin of species, where he reflected on the puzzle of sterile social insects, such as honey bees, which leave. Hamiltons inclusive fitness theory 14 16 the term kin selection theory was coined by john.
Supported by empirical studies which generally shows preference for helping close blood relativesmathmatical computer simulations demonstrate that kin selection is one of the possible selection processes in evolution together with reciprocity. The theory of kin selection describes how natural selection may be separated into direct and indirect components. Helping them to reproduce can increase your own fitness. Conflict among honey bee genes supports theory of altruism. The basics of kin selection theory kin selection theory has. Hamilton and his colleague maynard smith proved using complex mathematical simulations that simple group selection didnt have the. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within lineages. The framework of inclusive fitness theory provides a good way to envision the role played by kin selection and relatedness. Citations are grouped into sections on theory kinship theory, inbreeding and kinship effects, and kinship effects within the family and empirical studies kinship effects in insects and other ectotherms. The development of a theory of kin selection has proceeded along two lines. The relationship between kin selection and group or multi level. Kin selection is a type of natural selection where individuals will sacrifice their own lives in an effort to save closely related organisms. Sexratio conflicts, kin selection, and the evolution of.
Kin selection is an evolutionary theory that proposes that people are more likely to help those who are blood relatives because it will increase the odds of gene transmission to future generations. Kin selection is a type of natural selection in which an individual attempts to ensure the survival of its own genes by protecting closely related individuals first. In fact, group selection was the prevailing solution to the problem of altruism before kin selection came along. Kin selection, a type of natural selection that considers the role relatives play when evaluating the genetic fitness of a given individual. In principle, kin selection theory could have been developed prior to the discovery of mendelian genetics. Abstract kin selection theory is a kind of causal analysis. Program, portland state university, portland, or 97207, usa bdepartment of zoology, the university of british columbia, 23706270 university blvd. However, to fully assess the role of kin selection in primate groups, we need more information about the effects of kinship on the patterning of behavior across the primates and accurate information about paternal kin relationships. Apr 15, 2015 building on the kin selection theory selfish gene theory dawkins, 1989 what looks like selfsacrifice could, in reality, promote survival of your genes. History and modern usage the theory of kin selection is widely regarded as the most important theoretical development. Misunderstandings of kin selection and the delay in. Ultimately, to use kin selection theory to analyse natural patterns and to understand the history of debates over different approaches, one must follow the underlying history of causal analysis. Although the leading position in acute v formation is energetically more expensive than are other positions, the leader may gain inclusive fitness if the followers are close relatives such as offspring or siblings.
Kin selection theory provides a framework for analyzing such effects because an individuals longevity and mortality schedule may alter its inclusive fitness via effects on the fitness of relatives. This perspective allows us to combine kin selection and reciprocal altruism into a general matrix game model. Kinship effects in birds, kinship effects in nonprimate mammals. Williams1 abstract past considerations of kin selection have assumed a dyadic fitness exchange relationship between altruist and recipient. Misunderstandings of kin selection and the delay in quantifying ethnic kinship frank salter max planck society this paper discusses likely causes of a thirtyyear delay in quantifying the kinship, or relatedness, between random members of ethnic groups.
The rate of generation turnover is considered equal in all the curves, i. Independent historical developments in the multivariate analysis of quantitative traits merged with the causal analysis of social evolution by kin. The nature of kin selection theory is described by hamiltons rule. Kin selection theory predicts that you should be more likely to undertake a risky rescue, such as saving a drowning person from an icy pond, if that person is a close genetic relative. By doing so, kin selection theory provides a framework for understanding a wide range of social interactions, including altruism, cooperation. The merging of kin selection theory with quantitative genetics and multivariate. Rise and fall of inclusive fitness theory for the past four decades, kin selection theory has had a profound effect on the interpretation of the genetic evolution of eusociality and,byextension,ofsocialbehaviouringeneral. Evolution and altruism combining psychological mediators. The merging of kin selection theory with quantitative genetics and. Kin selection definition of kin selection by merriamwebster. The emphasis was on the survival mortality selection, mating success sexual selection, or family size fecundity selection of individuals.
Jul 25, 2019 kin selection definition is a theory of natural selection which states that a usually altruistic behavior or attribute that lowers the fitness of a particular individual is selected for if it increases the probability of survival and reproduction of related kin who possess some or all of the same genes as the altruistic individual. Interacting organisms may have an evolutionary incentive to help each other or at least to hurt each other less if they share genes, and the magnitude of this incentive should increase with the degree of relatedness between them. Several examples are presented showing that qualitatively new behavior has emerged from the exact models. As with group selection, it is a consequence of the properties of groups that. For the past four decades kin selection theory, based on the concept of inclusive fitness, has been the major theoretical attempt to explain the evolution of eusociality. All species members share the majority of their genes, so selection should favour universal. Let us now compare this with a commonly seen formulation of group selection theory. Individuals share 50% of their genes with a parent or sibling, so if an individual risks its own ability to reproduce or survive but helps its parents or m. Much of the way in which it has been tested is based on the existence of conflicts over sexratio production within eusocial colonies. Eusocial behavior in honey bees bob battaglia and sierra wood general background references honey bees apis mellifera are social insects.
Kin selection, group selection, and the varieties of population. Kin selection is the evolutionary strategy that favours the reproductive success of an organisms relatives, even at a cost to the organisms own survival and reproduction. Process by which traits are favoured because of their beneficial effects on the. This theory states that people are more likely to help blood relatives in difficult situations because this increases the odds that their genes will be transmitted to subsequent generations. Hl psychology human relationships flashcards quizlet. Pdf twelve misunderstandings of kin selection by richard.
If organisms do show differential treatment to kin according to the degree of relatedness, how do they detect kinship. How psychologists explain altruistic helpful behaviors. From an evolutionary genetic point of view it is therefore as advantageous to help. However, the role of relatedness in the evolution of altruistic traits has recently been questioned, with ecological factors that favor group living highlighted as an alternative hypothesis 3, 4. Informally, the relative density compares the number of inner connections joining up the members of a. Kin selection and reciprocal altruism are often viewed and tested as alternatives. Altruism poses a problem for evolutionary biologists because natural selection is not expected to favor behaviors that are beneficial to recipients, but costly to actors. Kin selected effects on aging have been demonstrated both by models of intergenerational transfers of investment by caregivers and by spatially. It is based on the concept of inclusive fitness, which is made up of individual survival and reproduction direct fitness and any impact that an individual has on the survival and reproduction of relatives indirect fitness.
Sometimes selection can lead to a trait such as a behavior that appears to be detrimental to the individual expressing the trait if organisms occur in stable kin groups, traits can evolve via kin selection indirect selection for alleles through an. Altruism and conflict sexual reproduction implies that parents are genetically not identical to their offspring only half of the alleles are from a given parent. Thedefiningfeature of kin selection theory is the concept of inclusive fitness. Kin selection and social insects university of washington. The central explanatory principle of kin selection theory is hamiltons rule, which says that a gene coding for a social behavior will be favored by natural selection if and only if rb c, where b represents the benefit that the behavior confers on the recipient, c represents the cost that it imposes on the actor, and r is the coefficient of. The theory that ones self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of ones own actions. It is discussed here in order to clarify the meaning of kin selection and inclusive fitness the total reproductive valve of an individual, both its production of offspring and effects on. In effect, there is no way to test kin selection theory in this case since every insect is, by definition, kin. According to birch, its too much to expect that a threevariable equation can be a precise predictor of evolutionary dynamics. Inclusivefitness theory, also known as kin selection theory, goes on to predict that the probability of altruistic acts is a function of two factors.
Highlights hamiltons rule holds even under the assumption of blending inheritance. Pdf on jan 1, 2017, rafael antonio garcia and others published kin selection find. To evolve by kin selection a genetic trait expressed by one individual actor must affect the genotypic fitness of one or more other individuals who are genetically related to the actor in a nonrandom way at the loci determining the trait. Hamiltons theory of kin selection is much misunderstood. This article describes the history of kin selection theory, with emphasis on how the causal perspective.
I first examine the potential role of some other nepotismgenerating mechanisms by concentrating on the effect of the proximity. Arguments against kin selection how kin selection works. Kin selection theory relatives other than your direct offspring can share your genes. The theory of kin selection is one of the foundations of the modern study of social behaviour. Mar 23, 2011 kin selection is changing our views of imprinting 12 and maternalfetus diseases in humans 12.
Kin selection is an instance of inclusive fitness, which combines the number of. The idea is to combine all the dispensed reproductive effects of an individual into an inclusive fitness for that individual in a way that correctly predicts the. In contrast, researchers have studied the relationship between reproductive valuethe extent to which an individual of a given state contributes to future generationsand the degree of altruistic. First, in contrast to honeybees, where workers are predicted to and do police each others male production, stingless bee workers are predicted to compete directly with the. Kin selection in the discussion of natural selection, the emphasis was on how natural selection works on individuals to favor the more fit and disfavor the less fit in a population. Mechanisms of kin selection inclusive fitness theory vs. Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. Inclusive fitness models have implicitly assumed that seltion is weak, whereas exactpopulation genetic models place no constraints on the strength of selection. The strength of the kin selection argument, it turns out, isnt theoretical but mathematical. Empirical studies have tested and confirmed a positive relationship between relatedness and the degree of altruistic behavior, as predicted by kin selection theory. The closer the relation between the people, the greater the likelihood that help will be given.
Kin selection and reproductive value in social mammals. The whole purpose of reproduction is to pass on genes to the next generation. Hamilton first proposed the theory in 1963 and noted that it plays a role in the evolution of altruism, cooperation, and sociality. Kin selection theory hamiltons genetical theory explains how aid that is selfsacrificing in terms of classical individual fitness, or altruism, can evolve if sufficiently beneficial to relatives. Kin selection and its critics bioscience oxford academic. Furthermore, theories of kin selection rely on population genetic models while models for reciprocal altruism focus on the specifics of repeated interactions and the capacity to shape conditional strategies. When working out his theory, especially his criterion for adaptive altruism, hamilton took as his starting point knowledge of the coefficient of relatedness between kin of different degrees hereafter. I will then combine this logic with the currently known mating system. Hamiltons theory of kin selection is the bestknown framework for understanding the 6 evolution of social behaviour, but has long been a source of controversy in evolutionary biology.
Among its greatest contributions is the formulation. Methods of kin recognition social cues proximity association verbal. Kin selection under blending inheritance sciencedirect. Throngs of sterile female workers handle nearly every other task in the colony, from scouting and collecting food, to building the nest or hive, and raising the young. The haplodiploidy hypothesis and kin selection theory are not. Altruism can be explained by natural selection nature. C kin selection theory has been widely accepted as an explanation for the evolution of altruistic traits. Such a process ensures that even if the chances of an individuals survival are reduced, some of his or here genes will survive in the relative.
The genetical theory of kin selection wiley online library. In the absence of kin selection, reciprocal altruism may be an evolutionarily stable strategy but is unable to invade a population of noncooperators. Pdf the evolution of social behavior by kin selection. Although this call for a paradigm shift has drawn criticism. Kin selection theory therefore provides a neat explanation of how sterility in the social insects may have evolved by darwinian means. Large colonies of certain ants, bees and wasps are other popular examples of kin selection at work. Clearly kin selection is a strong, vibrant theory that is the basis for understanding how social. Kin selection and family conflicts evolutionary biology. Kin selection and the evolutionary theory of aging. This was the kin selection theory, due originally to w. Kin selection and social insects social insects provide the most surprising predictions and satisfying tests of kin selection david c. According to the theory of inclusive fitness, parental care for offspring is a special case of kin selection, as it is yet another case of people or animals providing care for closely related kin who carry shared genetic material. The values of s arbitrarily chosen are indicated near each curve.
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