Inclusive Fitness Maximization: An Axiomatic Approach

Samir Okasha, John Weymark and Walter Bossert

Cahiers de recherche from Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques

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.

Keywords: Hamilton’s rule; inclusive fitness; kin selection; rational choice. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-hpe
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http://hdl.handle.net/1866/9775 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Inclusive Fitness Maximization: An Axiomatic Approach (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mtl:montde:2013-04

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