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Diminishing returns in social evolution: the not-so-tragic commons
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA. krfoster@rice.edu
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
|August 18, 2004
Summary
The tragedy of the commons is less severe than expected. Diminishing returns from competition or cooperation can significantly reduce its negative impact on social groups, making cooperation more likely.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary theory
- Behavioral ecology
- Game theory
Background:
- Cooperation in social groups faces challenges from competition and cheating, a concept known as the tragedy of the commons.
- Understanding how cooperation evolves despite these challenges is a central problem in evolutionary theory.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how varying fitness returns from reproductive competition and cooperation influence the negative effects of competition on social groups.
- To determine if specific patterns of fitness returns can mitigate the tragedy of the commons.
Main Methods:
- The study examines theoretical models of social group dynamics.
- It analyzes the impact of different fitness return functions (linear vs. diminishing) on group outcomes under competition.
Main Results:
- Linear fitness returns from competition or cooperation do not alter the negative impact of competition on social groups.
- Diminishing returns, where increased investment yields progressively smaller rewards, effectively reduce the detrimental effects of competition.
- This finding holds across diverse systems, including vertebrates, microbes, social insects, and interspecies mutualisms.
Conclusions:
- The tragedy of the commons may be less severe in natural systems than previously assumed.
- Diminishing returns in fitness provide a mechanism that can stabilize cooperation and reduce the disruptive influence of competition in social evolution.