PSYCH 1XX3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Group Selection, Organism, Phenotype
15 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Organism evolve to maximize their fitness and reproductive success. There is evidence of animals behaving altruistically (helping others at a cost to themselves: ex. Honey bees spend their lives aiding in raising eggs laid by the queen, many bees will die protecting the colony from predators. Cooperation actor does something that helps both himself and recipient. Selfish actor does something that helps himself but hurt recipient. Altruism actor does something that hurt themselves but helps recipient. Spite actor does something the hurts both themselves and the recipient. Sometimes cooperation reaps more benefit than selfishness: ex. Billy is a bad hockey player but you need him because you need 6 players on the ice to play. In this situation, you can invest time and resources to help billy play better. It may seem like this is an unselfish move on your part but ultimately it may pay off allowing you to win more games.
