PSYC 3100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Fallacy, Chromosome, Determinant
14 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Altruism: an act that decreases the fitness (differential reproductive success) of an actor in order to increase the fitness of the recipient. Altruistic organisms are selfless from the individual perspective, but selfish from the perspective of the gene. The gene is selfish because through acts of altruism it is propagating the reproduction and survival of the gene in other individuals. In order for the gene to be selfish, those who are benefitting must be kin and share the gene (see hamilton"s inclusive fitness) The problem: if a non-altruistic individual invades the population, it will have higher reproductive success because it is not expending energy to help others while the altruistic individuals are. Genes can pass on copies by two means: direct fitness: reproductive success of current body, indirect fitness: reproductive success of other bodies that carry that gene. Inclusive fitness = direct fitness + indirect fitness. The conditions under which altruism spreads and evolves:
