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rb>crb > c

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The baseline case is the one evolutionary biology solved first, and it solved it exactly. W. D. Hamilton’s 1964 papers on the genetical evolution of social behaviour gave altruism toward kin a precise condition under which natural selection favors it [ 1 ] : rb>crb > c. Here r is the coefficient of relatedness between the actor and the recipient, b is the fitness benefit the recipient gains, and c is the fitness cost the actor pays. A gene that disposes its carrier to help a relative will spread whenever the benefit to the recipient, discounted by how likely the recipient is to carry a copy of the same gene, exceeds the cost to the helper. As Robert Trivers summarized it a few years…

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rb>crb > c

Equation 1 · Evolutionary Psychology

Why We Punish Strangers: The Evolution of Human Cooperation

This equation states a bound: one expression must stay on the indicated side of the other under the article’s assumptions.

The baseline case is the one evolutionary biology solved first, and it solved it exactly. W. D. Hamilton’s 1964 papers on the genetical evolution of social behaviour gave altruism toward kin a precise condition under which natural selection favors it [ 1 ] : rb>crb > c. Here r is the coefficient of relatedness between the actor and the recipient, b is the fitness benefit the recipient gains, and c is the fitness cost the actor pays. A gene that disposes its carrier to help a relative will spread whenever the benefit to the recipient, discounted by how likely the recipient is to carry a copy of the same gene, exceeds the cost to the helper. As Robert Trivers summarized it a few years…

Meanings in this article

  • rr: the coefficient of relatedness between the actor and the recipient.
  • bb: the fitness benefit the recipient gains.
  • cc: the fitness cost the actor pays.
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