Kin Selection

Paper Summary:

The organization and functioning of human and animal societies has long been the subject of intense investigations by natural scientists, sociologists, and geneticists. Darwin, who laid the foundation for a modern theory of evolution, suggested "kin selection" as an explanation for the existence of sterile females, the worker caste, in social insects like ants, bees, and termites. This paper examines a later theory presented by W.D. Hamilton, who mathematically perceived his 'Theory of Kin Selection', showing it as a mechanism for the evolution of such apparently altruistic sterile castes.

From the Paper:

"Like any other genetic trait, altruism will evolve only if it is passed on from generation to generation in a proportion greater than alternative alleles for non-altruism. Hamilton has described the conditions under which an allele for altruism will have higher frequency of occurrence and, therefore, evolve. He states these conditions in a formula: br c > 0 or b x r > c where b, stands for "benefit", and refers to the enhanced reproductive benefit gained by recipient of altruism; r refers to the chance that the aided individual carries the same gene for altruism; c stands for "cost", to the altruist in terms of the number of offspring the altruist could have had if it had not been an altruist. Hamilton's formula leads to the concept that in a randomly mating and out breeding diploid population, an individual should sacrifice itself in order to save two siblings, four nephews or eight cousins' since siblings share 50% of the individual's genes, nephews 25% and cousins 12.5%."

More papers on Kin Selection:

• Essay # 143817 : "The Labour Party of Britain: an Analysis of the Candidate Selection Function "
• Essay # 90401 : "Gender Selection"
• Analytical Essay # 5511 : "Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection"

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