Kin discrimination, negative relatedness, and how to distinguish between selfishness and spite

Patel, Matishalin; West, Stuart A.; Biernaskie, Jay M.

Abstract

Spiteful behaviors occur when an actor harms its own fitness to inflict harm on the fitness of others. Several papers have predicted that spite can be favored in sufficiently small populations, even when the harming behavior is directed indiscriminately at others. However, it is not clear that truly spiteful behavior could be favored without the harm being directed at a subset of social partners with relatively low genetic similarity to the actor (kin discrimination, causing a negative relatedness between actor and harmed recipient). Using mathematical models, we show that (1) the evolution of spite requires kin discrimination; (2) previous models suggesting indiscriminate spite involve scenarios where the actor gains a direct feedback benefit from harming others, and so the harming is selfish rather than spiteful; (3) extreme selfishness can be favored in small populations (or, more generally, under local competition) because this is where the direct feedback benefit of harming is greatest.

Citation

Patel, M., West, S. A., & Biernaskie, J. M. (2020). Kin discrimination, negative relatedness, and how to distinguish between selfishness and spite. Evolution Letters, 4(1), 65-72. https://doi.org/10.1002/evl3.150

• Journal Article Type: Letter
• Acceptance Date: Nov 18, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 17, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 3, 2024
• Journal: Evolution Letters
• Print ISSN: 2056-3744
• Electronic ISSN: 2056-3744
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 65-72
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/evl3.150
• Keywords: Competition; Harming; Inclusive fitness; Kin selection; Social evolution; Super-territory; Territory size
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4711302