Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Selfishness as second-order altruism.

Omar Tonsi Eldakar1, David Sloan Wilson

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA. oeldakar@gmail.com

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|May 2, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

YawnStim: a standardized and diverse video stimulus set.

PeerJ·2026
Same author

Sports, team games, and physical skill competitions as an important source of symbolic material culture with low preservation probability.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2025
Same author

Protocol for an agent-based model of recombination in bacteria playing a public goods game.

STAR protocols·2023
Same author

Recombination as an enforcement mechanism of prosocial behavior in cooperating bacteria.

iScience·2023
Same author

Interactions between metabolism and growth can determine the co-existence of <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> and <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>.

eLife·2023
Same author

Multilevel cultural evolution: From new theory to practical applications.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2023
Same journal

Chemotactic self-organization captures the dynamics of mammalian hair follicle patterning.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Tomographic imaging of superconducting order using particle-hole interference.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Inhibitory potential of autologous neutralizing antibodies sets quantitative limits on the rebound-competent HIV-1 reservoir.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Inferring epidemiological parameters under an infectious phylogeography model with visitor dynamics.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Analytical modeling for suction cup designs for skin-interfaced wearable devices.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Improving cell-free metabolism through direct integration of artificial respiratory chains.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
See all related articles

Introducing the "selfish punisher" strategy: behaving selfishly in initial interactions but punishing other selfish individuals. This approach makes selfishness self-limiting, allowing altruism to thrive and creating a stable group dynamic.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Behavioral economics
  • Game theory

Background:

  • Selfishness typically undermines group benefit in evolutionary models.
  • Altruism is often favored by mechanisms like kinship or reciprocity.
  • Punishment can promote altruism but is costly, acting as second-order altruism.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify mechanisms that allow altruism to evolve.
  • To explore the role of punishment in promoting altruism.
  • To introduce and analyze the
  • selfish punisher
  • strategy.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling of evolutionary strategies.
  • Analysis of a novel
  • selfish punisher

Related Experiment Videos

  • strategy.
  • Simulating interactions between selfish individuals, altruists, and selfish punishers.

    • Main Results:

    • The
    • selfish punisher
    • strategy leads to selfishness being self-limiting.
    • A stable polymorphism where altruists and selfish individuals coexist is achieved.
    • This dynamic represents a division of labor or mutualism, where selfishness funds altruistic punishment.

    Conclusions:

    • Selfishness can paradoxically contribute to group benefit through the
    • selfish punisher
    • strategy.
    • The model demonstrates how costly punishment can evolve and stabilize altruistic behavior.
    • This findings challenge traditional views of selfishness in evolutionary contexts.