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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1975 Mar;72(3):1199–1201. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.3.1199

Evolution of Social Behavior Through Interpopulation Selection

Madhav Gadgil 1
PMCID: PMC432494  PMID: 16592228

Abstract

Under certain special conditions natural selection can be effective at the level of local populations, or demes. Such interpopulation selection will favor genotypes that reduce the probability of extinction of their parent population even at the cost of a lowered inclusive fitness. Such genotypes may be characterized by altruistic traits only in a viscous population, i.e., in a population in which neighbors tend to be closely related. In a non-viscous population the interpopulation selection will instead favor spiteful traits when the populations are susceptible to extinction through the overutilization of the habitat, and cooperative traits when it is the newly established populations that are in the greatest danger of extinction.

Keywords: spite, selfishness, group selection, altruism

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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