Abstract
Darwin hypothesized that group selection occurs when the benefits of cooperation between subpopulations are greater than the individual benefits of egotism within a subpopulation. The 1970s brought a renaissance in group selection explanations for sociality. Modern advocates agree that this principle is active at the individual level, but to make sense of this paradox requires elaborate multilevel selection explanations. A proposed refinement that avoids multilevel explanations characterizes differentiation as occurring more organically at the micro- or individual level, and integration, as reflected in sociality, at the macro- or group level. The dynamics of this micro-macro evolutionary process are driven to equilibrium by a variety of factors. When integration dominates, sociality is the dominant mechanism driving the dynamics, and survival and reproduction take a back seat to mate selection, cooperation, and altruism.
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References
Darwin C (1871) The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. John Murray, London
Wilson DS, Wilson EO (2007) Rethinking the theoretical foundation of Sociobiology. Q Rev Biol 82(4):327–348
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Pineda, J.A. (2022). Darwinian Evolutionary Theory. In: The Social Impulse. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08439-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08439-3_3
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