Tue. Sept. 26, 12:30 p.m., BSW 208: John Pepper on "Inclusive fitness vs. kin selection: Hamilton was right after all!" Abstract: One of the most persistent and important issues in evolutionary biology is the origin of cooperation. The most influential theoretical approach has been Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness, which is mathematically equivalent to the more recent formulations of multi-level selection theory. The scope of inclusive fitness theory is controversial. Other authors have equated inclusive fitness effects with kin selection, while Hamilton insisted that his approach was more general, but incorporated kin selection as a special case. I will present recent results showing that Hamilton was correct in principle, and that mechanisms other than common descent can generate the genetic similarity between individuals that drives inclusive fitness effects. The alternative mechanism I will describe is non-intuitive, yet requires only conditions that are widely met in nature.
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