Group-level evolutionary processes

Bibliographic Data

ID23608591
AuthorsD S Wilson (0000-0002-0611-3431, Binghamton University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Pages49-56
Publication date2012-09-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueOxford handbook of evolutionary psychology (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198568308.013.0005
OpenAlexW2623470308
ISBN9780198568308
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

This article summarises the common language of multi-level selection theory. Every student of evolution learns that natural selection is based on relative fitness. It doesn't matter how well a trait enhances survival and reproduction, as long as it does so better than alternative traits. Traits that decrease absolute fitness can evolve if they decrease the fitness of everyone else even more. Traits that increase absolute fitness can fail to evolve if they increase the fitness of everyone else even more. Whenever a large population is subdivided into groups, relative fitness in the total population can be divided into two components: relative fitness among individuals within single groups; and relative fitness among groups within the larger population. The fact that the group as a whole suffers from resource overexploitation is irrelevant because natural selection is based only on relative fitness.

Biology · Evolutionary biology · Fitness landscape · Genetic Fitness · Group selection · Natural selection · Population · Selection (genetic algorithm) · Sociology · Trait · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Demography · Evolution and Genetic Dynamics · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

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