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Kin selection, kin avoidance and correlated strategies

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Summary

Kin selection of correlated strategies is examined for both weak and strong altruism under simple haploid inheritance. While kin assortment enhances the range of evolutionary stability for (strongly altruistic) correlated strategies (defined herein), kin avoidance is possible under a weakly altruistic correlated strategy. When social competition induces role assignments of variable fitness, group mates may ‘prefer’ association with non-relatives. Even when group life is mandatory, an individual may accept the risk of abandonment (and reproductive death) rather then associate with kin: a competitive superior may behave altruistically by permitting competitively inferior kin to emigrate. Thus, kin selection and social competition are not necessarily mutually supportive processes within groups. I conclude by interpreting dominance as a strongly altruistic correlated strategy in two social hymenopteran contexts.

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  1. Department of Zoology, Arizona State University, 85287, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Gregory B. Pollock

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Pollock, G.B. Kin selection, kin avoidance and correlated strategies. Evol Ecol 10, 29–43 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01239344

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