PSYC 122 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2 & 26: Rhesus Macaque, Waggle Dance, Inclusive Fitness
Document Summary
Chapter 2: behavioral ecology and the evolution of altruism. Smaller workers carrying food items and soldiers defend the workers from ants and other predators that attack termites. None of workers and soldiers will reproduce, spend their lives devoted to others. They are eusocial insects: same as honey bees. In social insects, female workers have atrophied ovaries making them incapable of reproduction lost the ability to reproduce personally and instead help other members of colony reproduce: altruism self sacrifice. Group selection groups or species with self-sacrificing (altruistic) individuals are more likely to survive than those without altruists, leading to the evolution of group-benefiting altruism. Helping genetically similar individuals other than offspring survive to reproduce can provide an indirect route to indirect fitness. You & your offspring = 0. 5 r. You adopt 3 of your nephews = 0. 25 x 3 = 0. 75 r: altruism is adaptive because individuals with this characteristic pass on more altruism-promoting allele to next generation.
