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Living in Groups

  • Living reference work entry
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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science
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Synonyms

Aggression; Benefits; Costs; Cultural transmission; Kin selection; Rank order

Definition

A group can be defined as at least two individuals of the same species staying together for an extended period of time and actively seeking each other out in order to interact.

Introduction

Many animal species, including humans, live in groups of varying size and composition. In order to understand how group living has evolved during evolution, one has to consider which benefits and costs that have led to this. If the costs have been higher than the benefits, it may have led to that a species has developed a more solitary life style. However, living in groups often gives advantages to individuals at different times of their lives, thus pushing animals to choose group living at some stages of their lives. It may also be that the environment and the available resources may differ in different areas leading to that individuals of the same species may choose to live solitary at times and in...

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Correspondence to Lena M. Lidfors .

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Lidfors, L.M. (2018). Living in Groups. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2698-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2698-1

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