@article{ref1,
title="Suicidal altruism under random assortment",
journal="Evolutionary Ecology Research",
year="2008",
author="Pollock, G.B. and Cabrales, A.",
volume="10",
number="7",
pages="1077-1086",
abstract="Questions: Can there be a selective explanation for suicide? Or are all suicides evolutionary mistakes, ever pruned by natural selection to the extent that the tendency to perform them is heritable? Model: A simple variant of trait group selection (where a population is divided into mutually exclusive groups, with the direct effects of behaviour limited to group-mates), employing predators as the mechanism underlying group selection. Predators evaluate groups to avoid potentially suicidal defenders (which, when present, limit a predator's net return), thus acting as a group selection mechanism favouring groups with potentially suicidal altruists. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The model supports contingent strong altruism (depressing one's direct reproduction - absolute fitness - to aid others) without kin assortment. Even an extreme contingent suicidal type (destroying self for the sake of others) may either saturate a population or be polymorphic with a type avoiding such altruism. The model does not, however, support a sterile worker caste, where sterility occurs before life-history events associated with effective altruism; under random assortment, reproductive suicide must remain contingent or facultative. © 2008 Gregory B. Pollock.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1522-0613",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}