Kin Selection vs. Group Selection and Other Possible Theories

Introduction

This story is a sidebar to another that examines the cognitive and emotional underpinning of our extreme sociality: Good Tribe/Bad Tribe — Nerdcore Mix

Controversy

Unsurprisingly, the components I’ve assembled here are controversial.

First, there’s been a particularly nasty shootout between kin selection and group selection proponents recently. Kin selection derives easily from gene selection…for example, a sacrifice for…