Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

kin selection: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · a standalone construct Nearest construct by meaningkinshipcompare the meanings
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kinselection1 CONSTRUCTKin selectionHAMILTON · KIN SELECTION

A single standalone construct; nearby constructs are located against it in the Collider. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

Evolutionary biology

Natural selection favouring traits that help genetic relatives reproduce

W.D. Hamilton set out the underlying theory in a two-part 1964 paper, The genetical evolution of social behaviour (Journal of Theoretical Biology), and the phrase kin selection was coined the same year by John Maynard Smith. Kin selection is the process by which natural selection can favour a trait that lowers an individual's own reproduction while raising the reproduction of its genetic relatives, because relatives carry copies of the same genes, so a gene can spread by helping the bodies that also hold it. Hamilton stated the condition compactly in what is now called Hamilton's rule: such a helping behaviour is favoured when rb is greater than c, where r is the genetic relatedness between helper and recipient, b is the reproductive benefit to the recipient, and c is the reproductive cost to the helper. The idea reframes evolutionary success as inclusive fitness, an individual's own reproduction plus its effect on the reproduction of relatives, each relative's contribution weighted by relatedness. Its scope is what makes it a landmark: it gives one quantitative account of why self-sacrificing or cooperative behaviour, from alarm calls to the sterile worker castes of ants and bees, can evolve even though it reduces the helper's direct offspring.[1][2][3]

Unit
A selective process acting on genes through their effect on the reproduction of genetic relatives
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Assessed with Hamilton's rule (rb greater than c) by estimating genetic relatedness r and the reproductive costs and benefits of a behaviour

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Nearby constructs

altruism4 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsfitness4 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, four constructscooperation4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(64)90038-4
  2. Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. II. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 17–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(64)90039-6
  3. Maynard Smith, J. (1964). Group selection and kin selection. Nature, 201(4924), 1145–1147. https://doi.org/10.1038/2011145a0

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