Levels of selection, altruism, and primate behavior.
Altruistic behaviors seem anomalous from a traditional view of Darwinian natural selection, and evolutionary explanations for them have generated much discussion. The debate centers around four major explanations: classic individual-level selection, reciprocity and game theory, kin selection, and trait-group selection. The historical context and defining criteria of each model must be reviewed before its validity can be assessed. Of these proposed mechanisms, group selection historically has been the most controversial. Although the extent to which empirical data support group selection hypotheses is uncertain, there is evidence for group-level selection among avirulent virus strains and foraging ant queens. Researchers studying mammalian behavior, particularly primatologists, have largely dismissed models of group-level selection. Most discussion of altruism among primates has focused on differences in fitness among individuals within a single group, but students of altruistic behaviors exhibited by primates also need to investigate intergroup variation with respect to these behaviors. Various altruistic behaviors are likely to have evolved through different forms of selection, and each example of apparent altruism therefore needs to be evaluated separately.
Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, State University of New York Stony Brook 11794, USA. BBRADLEY@IC.SUNYSB.EDU
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D000533:Altruism; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D011323:Primates / Q000523:psychology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic