Honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness

Inclusive fitness requires a careful accounting of all the fitness effects of a particular behaviour. Verbal arguments can potentially exaggerate the inclusive fitness consequences of behaviour by including the fitness of relatives that was not caused by that behaviour, leading to error. We show how...

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मुख्य लेखकों: Levin, SR, Caro, SM, Griffin, AS, West, SA
स्वरूप: Journal article
भाषा:English
प्रकाशित: Wiley 2019
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author Levin, SR
Caro, SM
Griffin, AS
West, SA
author_facet Levin, SR
Caro, SM
Griffin, AS
West, SA
author_sort Levin, SR
collection OXFORD
description Inclusive fitness requires a careful accounting of all the fitness effects of a particular behaviour. Verbal arguments can potentially exaggerate the inclusive fitness consequences of behaviour by including the fitness of relatives that was not caused by that behaviour, leading to error. We show how this this ‘double counting’ error can arise, with a recent example from the signalling literature. In particular, we examine the recent debate over whether parental divorce increases parent-offspring conflict, selecting for less honest signalling. We found that, when all the inclusive fitness consequences are accounted for, parental divorce increases conflict between siblings, in a way that can select for less honest signalling. This prediction is consistent with the empirical data. More generally, our results illustrate how verbal arguments can be misleading, emphasising the advantage of formal mathematical models.
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spelling oxford-uuid:7fe41d3b-e5ec-40ba-bd79-ca3b866bcffc2023-03-23T14:43:35ZHonest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitnessJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7fe41d3b-e5ec-40ba-bd79-ca3b866bcffcEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordWiley2019Levin, SRCaro, SMGriffin, ASWest, SAInclusive fitness requires a careful accounting of all the fitness effects of a particular behaviour. Verbal arguments can potentially exaggerate the inclusive fitness consequences of behaviour by including the fitness of relatives that was not caused by that behaviour, leading to error. We show how this this ‘double counting’ error can arise, with a recent example from the signalling literature. In particular, we examine the recent debate over whether parental divorce increases parent-offspring conflict, selecting for less honest signalling. We found that, when all the inclusive fitness consequences are accounted for, parental divorce increases conflict between siblings, in a way that can select for less honest signalling. This prediction is consistent with the empirical data. More generally, our results illustrate how verbal arguments can be misleading, emphasising the advantage of formal mathematical models.
spellingShingle Levin, SR
Caro, SM
Griffin, AS
West, SA
Honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness
title Honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness
title_full Honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness
title_fullStr Honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness
title_full_unstemmed Honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness
title_short Honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness
title_sort honest signaling and the double counting of inclusive fitness
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