36. Selfishness and Altruism

Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior (EEB 122)

Originally, altruism and self-sacrifice were thought to be incompatible with natural selection, even by Darwin. Now we have several explanations for how altruism can increase an individual's fitness. One is kin selection, or the idea that helping relatives can help increase one's genes in the population. Another involves ecological constraints and punishments. Here, individuals contribute to the group and wait their turn to reproduce.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction
01:49 - Chapter 2. Group Selection
07:24 - Chapter 3. Kin Selection
18:19 - Chapter 4. Ecological Constraints and Punishments
22:51 - Chapter 5. Reciprocal Altruism
28:21 - Chapter 6. Conclusion

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.