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Group selection in behavioral evolution
1Psychology Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, United States.
Behavioural Processes
|September 14, 2017
Summary
Behavioral patterns evolve across generations, similar to biological evolution. This study argues that group selection favors cooperative behavioral patterns, even costly ones, explaining self-control and altruism learning.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Behavioral Ecology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Organismal behavior changes over a lifetime, driven by evolution across generations.
- Biological evolution can favor cooperation through group selection, even with individual costs.
- Behavioral evolution parallels biological evolution, with potential for group selection on behavioral patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore how behavioral patterns evolve over an organism's lifetime.
- To investigate the applicability of group selection principles to behavioral evolution.
- To explain the learning of self-control and altruism through pattern selection.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of biological and behavioral evolution.
- Theoretical framework for group selection in behavioral evolution.
- Examination of selection acting on patterns of acts, not just individual acts.
Main Results:
- Behavioral patterns evolve analogous to biological evolution.
- Conditions for group selection are argued to be met in behavioral and cultural evolution.
- Selection of behavioral patterns provides a mechanism for learning self-control and altruism.
Conclusions:
- Behavioral evolution, like biological evolution, can be driven by group selection.
- Pattern selection offers a novel explanation for the development of complex social behaviors.
- The framework supports understanding the evolution of costly cooperative acts and learned behaviors.
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