IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mtl/montec/05-2013.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inclusive Fitness Maximization : An Axiomatic Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Samir Okasha
  • John A. Weymark
  • Walter Bossert

Abstract

Kin selection theorists argue that evolution in social contexts will lead organisms to behave as if maximizing their inclusive, as opposed to personal, fitness. The inclusive fitness concept allows biologists to treat organisms as akin to rational agents seeking to maximize a utility function. Here we develop this idea and place it on a firm footing by employing a standard decision-theoretic methodology. We show how the principle of inclusive fitness maximization and a related principle of quasi-inclusive fitness maximization can be derived from axioms on an individual’s ‘as if preferences’ (binary choices). Our results help integrate evolutionary theory and rational choice theory, help draw out the behavioural implications of inclusive fitness maximization, and point to a possible way in which evolution could lead organisms to implement it.

Suggested Citation

  • Samir Okasha & John A. Weymark & Walter Bossert, 2013. "Inclusive Fitness Maximization : An Axiomatic Approach," Cahiers de recherche 05-2013, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    • Handle: RePEc:mtl:montec:05-2013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cireqmontreal.com/wp-content/uploads/cahiers/05-2013-cah.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McElreath, Richard & Boyd, Robert, 2007. "Mathematical Models of Social Evolution," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226558264, December.
    2. Martin A. Nowak & Corina E. Tarnita & Edward O. Wilson, 2010. "The evolution of eusociality," Nature, Nature, vol. 466(7310), pages 1057-1062, August.
    3. Bossert, Walter & Qi, Chloe X. & Weymark, John A., 2013. "Measuring Group Fitness In A Biological Hierarchy: An Axiomatic Social Choice Approach," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(3), pages 301-323, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Catherine C Eckel & Enrique Fatas & Sara Godoy & Rick K Wilson, 2016. "Group-Level Selection Increases Cooperation in the Public Goods Game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-13, August.
    2. Baldini, Ryan, 2012. "Success-biased social learning: Cultural and evolutionary dynamics," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 222-228.
    3. Som B Ale & Joel S Brown & Amy T Sullivan, 2013. "Evolution of Cooperation: Combining Kin Selection and Reciprocal Altruism into Matrix Games with Social Dilemmas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-8, May.
    4. Aslihan Akdeniz & Matthijs van Veelen, 2019. "The cancellation effect at the group level," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-073/I, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Sun, Qipeng & Cheng, Qianqian & Wang, Yongjie & Li, Tao & Ma, Fei & Yao, Zhigang, 2022. "Zip-merging behavior at Y-intersection based on intelligent travel points," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 593(C).
    6. Jack Vromen, 2013. "Competition as an evolutionary process: Mark Blaug and evolutionary economics," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 9, pages 98-124, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Carsten K W De Dreu & Shaul Shalvi & Lindred L Greer & Gerben A Van Kleef & Michel J J Handgraaf, 2012. "Oxytocin Motivates Non-Cooperation in Intergroup Conflict to Protect Vulnerable In-Group Members," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-7, November.
    8. Fix, Blair, 2020. "Economic Development and the Death of the Free Market," SocArXiv g86am, Center for Open Science.
    9. Wakano, Joe Yuichiro & Ohtsuki, Hisashi & Kobayashi, Yutaka, 2013. "A mathematical description of the inclusive fitness theory," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 46-55.
    10. Terence C. Burnham & Jay Phelan, 2023. "Ordinaries 13: apparent spite & apparent altruism," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 147-180, December.
    11. Han, Jia-Xu & Wang, Rui-Wu, 2023. "Complex interactions promote the frequency of cooperation in snowdrift game," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 609(C).
    12. John Gowdy & Lisi Krall, 2014. "Agriculture as a major evolutionary transition to human ultrasociality," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 179-202, July.
    13. Gao, Lei & Li, Yaotang & Wang, Zhen & Wang, Rui-Wu, 2022. "Asymmetric strategy setup solve the Prisoner’s Dilemma of the evolution of mutualism," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 412(C).
    14. Harbord, David & Fehr, Nils Henrik von der, 2011. "Coordination, compensation and the expansion of trade: The merchant guilds revisited," MPRA Paper 40992, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Antonio Cabrales & Mathias Dolls & Ruben Durante & Lisa Windsteiger, 2021. "Calamities, Common Interests, Shared Identity: What Shapes Social Cohesion in Europe?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9112, CESifo.
    16. Kurokawa, Shun, 2019. "How memory cost, switching cost, and payoff non-linearity affect the evolution of persistence," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 341(C), pages 174-192.
    17. Casajus, André & Kramm, Michael & Wiese, Harald, 2020. "Asymptotic stability in the Lovász-Shapley replicator dynamic for cooperative games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    18. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Antonio Cabrales & Mathias Dolls & Ruben Durante & Lisa Windsteiger, 2021. "Calamities, Common Interests, Shared Identity: What Shapes Altruism and Reciprocity?," EconPol Working Paper 64, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    19. Nathan Berg & Jeong-Yoo Kim & Kyu Min Lee, 2021. "Why is parochialism prevalent?: an evolutionary approach," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 16(4), pages 769-796, October.
    20. Terence C. Burnham, 2019. "Edward O. Wilson: Genesis, the deep origin of societies," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 183-189, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hamilton’s Rule; inclusive fitness; kin selection; rational choice;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mtl:montec:05-2013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sharon BREWER (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cdmtlca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.