What is group selection in biology?

Group selection, in biology, a type of natural selection that acts collectively on all members of a given group. Typically the group under selection is a small cohesive social unit, and members’ interactions are of an altruistic nature.

What is the definition of selection in biology?

Selection, in biology, the preferential survival and reproduction or preferential elimination of individuals with certain genotypes (genetic compositions), by means of natural or artificial controlling factors.

What is kin selection example?

The honeybee and other social insects provide the clearest example of kin selection. So any behavior that favors honeybee sisters (75% of genes shared) will be more favorable to their genotype than behavior that favors their children (50% of genes shared).

What is multi level selection?

Multilevel selection theory The central tenet of multilevel (or group) selection theory conveys that selection not only acts on individuals but can act (simultaneously) on multiple levels of biological organization, including cells and/or groups 48.

Why is group selection controversial?

In the 1960s and 1970s, the group selection hypothesis was heavily critiqued by authors such as G.C. Williams, John Maynard Smith, and Richard Dawkins. They argued that group selection was an inherently weak evolutionary mechanism, and not needed to explain the data anyway.

What is the purpose of kin selection?

Kin selection is important because it can explain altruistic behavior, such as in workers of the social insects. However, it can also explain selfish behaviors and is important for understanding conflicts between individuals.

Does kin selection apply to humans?

The viscous population mechanism makes kin selection and social cooperation possible in the absence of kin recognition. In humans, altruism is both more likely and on a larger scale with kin than with unrelated individuals; for example, humans give presents according to how closely related they are to the recipient.

What is gene level selection?

In recent literature, ‘gene- level selection’ is often used in a restricted sense, to mean selection between genes within a single organism, as occurs in cases of intra-genomic conflict, e.g. meiotic drive. In this sense, most selection processes cannot be described as gene selection.

What is the definition of group selection in biology?

Group selection, in biology, a type of natural selection that acts collectively on all members of a given group. Group selection may also be defined as selection in which traits evolve according to the fitness (survival and reproductive success) of groups or, mathematically, as selection in which

How is selection carried out for multiple traits?

The selection in which several traits are improved in succession, such as selection is carried out first for one trait, until a desired genetic level is reached, then selection for the second, third, and following traits are performed.

How is group selection a factor in multilevel selection?

Several decades later, however, group selection found renewed interest in evolutionary thinking—namely, as a factor in multilevel selection, the idea that the most altruistic groups within a population enjoy the greatest reproductive success and thereby fuel the evolution of altruism within the population.

Why does multilevel selection theory focus on the phenotype?

Multilevel selection theory focuses on the phenotype because it looks at the levels that selection directly acts upon. For humans, social norms can be argued to reduce individual level variation and competition, thus shifting selection to the group level.