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Group selection in behavioral evolution.

Howard Rachlin1

  • 1Psychology Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, United States.

Behavioural Processes
|September 14, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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.

Keywords:
AltruismBehavioral evolutionBehavioral variationBiological evolutionExtended selfGroup selectionSelf-controlTeleological behaviorism

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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.