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Strong altruism can evolve in randomly formed groups.

Jeffrey A Fletcher1, Martin Zwick

  • 1Systems Science Ph.D. Program, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207, USA. jeff@pdx.edu

Journal of Theoretical Biology
|May 12, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Strong altruism can evolve even in randomly formed groups if they persist for more than one generation. This allows altruistic traits to increase over time, even when initially rare.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Behavioral ecology

Background:

  • Strong altruism, involving costs to the altruist, was thought to require specific conditions for evolution.
  • Randomly formed groups were believed to prevent the evolution of strong altruism.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if strong altruism can evolve without special conditions beyond group persistence.
  • To re-evaluate models of altruism evolution with multigenerational groups.

Main Methods:

  • Analytic modeling
  • Computer simulations
  • Analysis of group formation dynamics over generations

Main Results:

  • Positive assortment, necessary for strong altruism, can arise naturally in multigenerational groups.
  • Altruism can increase over generations even if initially rare or with migration.
  • Stochasticity plays a significant role in the evolution of altruism.

Conclusions:

  • Strong altruism can evolve in randomly formed groups that persist for multiple generations.
  • Multigenerational group structure is key, not special environmental conditions or capabilities.
  • Altruism may be more widespread and evolve in simpler organisms than previously assumed.

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