You are here

Hamilton's Rule

Submitted by bthoole on Tue, 09/25/2018 - 19:50

Kin selection is an evolutionary strategy that looks to favor the reproductive success of the genes at play, meaning that this can result in favoring the reproductive success of an organism's kin over their own success, whether that be their reproductive success or even their survival. This can explain the behaviors of social insects and other altruistic behaviors exhibited by kin. This idea is represented by the famous saying that " I would die for two brothers or eight cousins". More specifcally than that though, this phenomenon was explained mathematically with Hamilton's Rule, which stated that kin selection causes for gene frequency to increase when the genetc relatedness of a recipient to the actor is multiplied by benefit to the recipient is greater than the reproductive cost to the actor. This was summarized in the equation rB>C. r is the genetic relatedness, B is the benefit to the recipient of the act and C is the reproductive cost to the actor. Put simply, this means that the actor will only act altruistically if the reproductive benefit for the genes is greater than the reproductive value from not acting, which would be the cost to the actor. The benfit for the genes increases as the relatedness increases because of the simillarity in the genetic code they share.

Post: