"The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour" is a 1964
scientific paper
: ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.''
Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scienti ...
by the British
evolutionary biologist
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...
W.D. Hamilton
William Donald Hamilton (1 August 1936 – 7 March 2000) was a British evolutionary biologist, recognised as one of the most significant evolutionary theorists of the 20th century.
Hamilton became known for his theoretical work expounding a ...
in which he mathematically lays out the basis for
inclusive fitness
In evolutionary biology, inclusive fitness is one of two metrics of evolutionary success as defined by W. D. Hamilton in 1964:
* Personal fitness is the number of offspring that an individual begets (regardless of who rescues/rears/supports them ...
.
Hamilton, then only a PhD student, completed his work in London. It was based on
Haldane's idea, but Hamilton showed that it applied to all gene frequencies. Although initially obscure, it is now highly cited in biology books, and has gone on to reach such common currency that citations are now often unnecessary as it is assumed that the reader is so familiar with kin selection and inclusive fitness that he need not use the reference to obtain further information.
The paper's
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...
process led to disharmony between one of the reviewers,
John Maynard Smith
John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics un ...
and Hamilton. Hamilton thought that Maynard Smith had deliberately kept the paper, which has difficult mathematics, from publication so that Maynard Smith could claim credit for the concept of kin selection in his own paper. Indeed such was the time taken for peer review that Hamilton published a magazine essay in ''
American Naturalist
''The American Naturalist'' is the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society of Naturalists, whose purpose is "to advance and to diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and other broad biological principles so as to enhance t ...
'' in 1963.
The American
George R. Price
George Robert Price (October 6, 1922 – January 6, 1975) was an American population geneticist. Price is often noted for his formulation of the Price equation in 1967.
Originally a physical chemist and later a science journalist, he moved ...
found Hamilton's paper, and finding trouble in its implications for
sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within ...
, tried to disprove it but ended up rederiving his work through the
Price equation
In the theory of evolution and natural selection, the Price equation (also known as Price's equation or Price's theorem) describes how a trait or allele changes in frequency over time. The equation uses a covariance between a trait and fitness, ...
.
The paper has been reprinted in books twice, firstly in
George C. Williams's ''Group Selection'', and secondly in the first volume of Hamilton's collected papers ''
Narrow Roads of Gene Land''. The latter includes a background essay by Hamilton.
Hamilton had previously written a short note explaining the background in 1988 when
ISI recorded it as a citation classic.
[Hamilton, W.D. (1988]
This week's Citation Classic: The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour
/ref>
See also
*''Group Selection
Group selection is a proposed mechanism of evolution in which natural selection acts at the level of the group, instead of at the level of the individual or gene.
Early authors such as V. C. Wynne-Edwards and Konrad Lorenz argued that the behavi ...
'' (book by G. C. Williams which contains this paper)
References
External links
The genetic evolution of social behaviour: bibliographical excerpts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Genetical Evolution Of Social Behaviour
Evolutionary biology literature
1964 documents
1964 in biology
Biology papers