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Topic: Group selection

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	The Science Creative Quarterly » THE CONTROVERSY OF GROUP SELECTION THEORY
		Group selection theory was originally postulated to account for behaviours observed in both human and animal societies that appear to benefit the group, even when it results in poor individual fitness.
		The ongoing battle to resolve group selection theory with traditional theories of natural selection has inspired evolutionary biologists to look beyond selection acting solely at the individual level and begin investigating how selective forces can act at multiple levels of biological organization, resulting in the possibility of counter-intuitive interactions between populations, individuals, and genes.
		This struggle to find a resolution, a seamlessly ‘unified’ selection theory that bridges the gap from the smallest nucleic acid to the largest populations, is essentially at the heart of smaller controversial issues like group selection, and is part of the reason why these heated topics have persisted since Darwin started it all.
	www.scq.ubc.ca /?p=170 (750 words)

	Group Selection and Networks (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Group selection is in many ways the opposite of individual selection, which proposes that each individual organism acts in its own best interest at all times, in the hope of maximizing the spread and success of its genetic successors.
		Group selection is a notion that makes a lot of sense to me. It seems to be based philosophically on two notions which we have discussed in relation to networks in this course.
		Group selection seems to me to be an approach to evolution which takes into account the natural network structure of many of the groups in nature.
	www.stanford.edu /class/symbsys205/groupselection.html (740 words)

	Group selection - EvoWiki (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Group selection refers to the idea that alleles can become fixed or spread because of the benefits they bestow on groups, regardless of the fitness of individuals within that group.
		Group selectionist ideas have been around since Darwin mentioned it in the 'Descent of Man' as a possible mechanism of evolution of human altruism but were further elaborated by V.C. Wynne-Edwards in the 1960s.
		They focus their argument on whether groups can have functional organization in the same way individuals do, and consequently, if groups can also be "vehicles" for selection.
	wiki.cotch.net /index.php/Group_selection (343 words)

	Group selection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		In evolutionary biology, group selection refers to the idea that alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups, regardless of the fitness of individuals within that group.
		Group selection was used as a popular explanation for adaptations, especially by V.C. Wynne-Edwards.
		However, theoretical models of the 1960s seemed to imply that the effect of group selection was negligible.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Group_selection (1186 words)

	levels of selection
		In general, if selection is acting at some level, A, we can model evolution as though it were acting at some other level, B, so long as we can calculate the frequency of units at level A in the next generation from the frequency of units at level B in the current generation.
		This mode of group reproduction thus tends to increase the efficacy of group selection relative to selection between individuals.
		To see when species selection must be considered as an evolutionary mechanism, I will consider the case in which selection between individuals favors one allele at a locus while selection between species favors those that have a high frequency of the alternate allele.
	www.webpages.ttu.edu /searice/group.html (1717 words)

	Simulation of group selection models
		Group selection theory studies a genetically inherited trait, called altruism, which increases the fitness of a group of individuals, but decreases the fitness of the individual carrying this trait.
		Group selection is obviously very sensitive to the rate of migration between groups.
		Since group selection is most effective under low migration rates, the question arises of how a low migration rate can evolve when there are no physical barriers to migration, as in the group territoriality model.
	www.agner.org /evolution/groupsel (1210 words)

	Dawkins and Group Selection
		It is incontestable that biological inheritance operates through the genes, not the group, and it follows that natural selection works on the basis of the individual not the group.
		Group selection may operate at the level of small, kin-based groups, but not with larger ones, because groups as such have no biological heritability.
		Group selection is an umbrella phrase, a subset of the word selection.
	www.progressivehumanism.com /dawkinsgroupselection.html (2100 words)

	Evolution - A-Z - Group selection
		Group selection describes natural selection operating between groups of organisms, rather than between individuals.
		Darwin's theory of evolution was based upon individual selection, and he rejected the idea of group selection.
		Group selection has shown to be at least theoretically possible by experiments which selected for reproductive constraint in flour beetles (pictured opposite).
	www.blackwellpublishing.com /ridley/a-z/Group_selection_.asp (213 words)

	Article on Group Selection for Endeavour
		Wynne-Edwards thought such "group selection" (as he called it) to be pervasive in nature, and indeed to lie at the base of all social behaviour.
		But whenever a group of altruists is "infected" by an individual (or gene) pursuing the anti-social (selfish) strategy of seeking to maximize individual reproduction, such an individual will have an advantage over its altruistic rivals and hence its strategy (by being passed on to its more numerous offspring) will quickly spread through the group.
		Groups consisting of altruists are thus always vulnerable to subversion from an anti-social invader (a "free-rider") who benefits from the social arrangement but contributes nothing toward its maintenance.
	myweb.lmu.edu /tshanahan/GS-ENDVR.html (2955 words)

	Please go to: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kruger/
		Group selection theories have been reanimated by David Sloan Wilson and Elliot Sober, who argue that selection can operate not only at the individual level, but at the group level (Horgan, 1996).
		Even in social insect groups which have more than one queen in a hive, such as the epiponine wasp Brachygastra mellifica, workers are on average significantly more related to queens than to other workers (r of.37 versus.23) and should therefore suppress each other in order to let the queens produce the eggs.
		This would require between-group selection for altruism to occur at a faster rate than within-group selection for selfishness, and the chance of selfish individuals invading the group must be low.
	www-personal.umich.edu /~kruger/ep6.html (1209 words)

	[No title]
		Thus came the idea of group selection as a process in which an individual acted for the good of the group, regardless of whether it should benefit the individual or be detrimental to the individual.
		Selection was supposedly acting at the group level, and Wade demonstrated that it occurred through a genetic component.
		In discussing interaction selection, we would transcend strict essentialist concepts such as individual selection and group selection, and reach a more pure form of analysis in which the process is emphasized rather than the unit of selection.
	ib.berkeley.edu /courses/ib160/past_papers/beroukhim.html (3140 words)

	Craig T. Palmer reviews Altruistically Inclined? The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of ... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Before reading this book, I held the position that group selection was a means of evolution that had played a role in the evolution of a few forms of life, but there was no evidence it had been a significant factor in human evolution.
		The second reason I remain unconvinced of the role of group selection in human evolution is that no serious attempt is made to even try and establish that humans actually lived in exactly the kind of groups necessary for group selection to occur.
		This pattern, totally ignored by Field, is the puzzle for existing explanations of human altruism, and group selection is of no help in solving it because the webs of social relationships based on these gradations of kinship fail to produce the kinds of groups necessary for group selection (Palmer et al.
	human-nature.com /nibbs/02/field.html (1398 words)

	The Check of Group Upon Individual Natural Selection: Cooperative Competition
		If we consider, as we must, that natural selection acts both on the genes and on culture[6] (though with some new laws added in the latter case), then natural selection of the group has priority, for only the group carries culture as well as genes.
		Certainly one can see that it is easily possible for the within-group selection of individuals, i.e., the relative survival rates among individuals, to produce genetic types and tendencies to behavioral habits highly favorable to selfish individual survival but in the end incompatible with the survival of the group.
		In short, evolutionary selection operating on the characters of individuals and upon the characters of groups are distinct mechanisms, and we should guard against slipping into any simple assumption that they automatically work in the same direction, and especially that group competition may be abolished because selection within groups will take care of the matter.
	www.efn.org /~callen/anmfshtml/section3.3.htm (2234 words)

	Group Selection
		Group selection theory centers on the claim that selection in structured populations can result in the stabilization of group level adaptations - traits that are good for the group even though they put individuals carrying those traits at a competitive disadvantage within the group.
		It is thought that group selection is the key to understanding the evolution of altruism, morality, and cooperation.
		Part of Sober and Wilson's argument is that the standard ways of explaining the evolution of unselfish behavior, which include "kin selection", "reciprocal altruism", and non-random interaction patterns, are in fact kinds of group selection, in that the stabilization of self-sacrificing behavior patterns in these models depends critically on group structure.
	www.ethics.ubc.ca /eame/eameweb/Simulators/GrpSlct/GroupDoc.htm (992 words)

	Gene Expression: CULTURAL EVOLUTION BY GROUP SELECTION
		One way is roughly as follows: social groups (populations, societies, etc.) possess cultural traits; these social groups reproduce and undergo selection; and their cultural traits evolve as a by-product of this process.
		Some advocates of group selection treat expansion as analogous to ‘reproduction’; for example, in the book ‘Unto Others’ Sober and Wilson cite the expansion of the Nuer at the expense of the Dinka in Sudan as their prize example of group selection in action.
		Finally, even if group selection of cultural traits does occur, there is no reason to suppose that all or even many of the traits of a ‘successful’ group have contributed to its success, let alone that they are beneficial to its individual members.
	www.gnxp.com /MT2/archives/000220.html (3515 words)

	Search (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Although the term 'selection bias' is used as the general category for all prior differences, when we know specifically what the group difference is, we usually hyphenate it with the 'selection' term.
		Since the tutoring group has the more extreme lower scorers, their mean will regress a greater distance toward the overall population mean and they will appear to gain more than their comparison group counterparts.
		If the second group is a control group and is comparable to the program group, we can rule out the single group threats to internal validity because they will all be reflected in the comparison group and cannot explain why posttest group differences would occur.
	www.socialresearchmethods.net /kb/intmult.htm (1212 words)

	Group selection, selection in social contexts, and levels of selection: an open forum discussion
		During the 1960's and 70's most biologists rejected group selection as an important evolutionary force but a positive literature began to grow during the 70's and is rapidly expanding today.
		We show that the rejection of group selection was based on a misplaced emphasis on genes as "replicators" which is in fact irrelevant to the question of whether groups can be like individuals in their functional organization.
		When this elementary fact is recognized, group selection emerges as an important force in nature and ostensible alternatives, such as kin selection and reciprocity, reappear as special cases of group selection.
	www.anth.ucsb.edu /projects/esm/GroupSelection.html (336 words)

	RE-INTRODUCING GROUP SELECTION TO THE HUMAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
		In the former case, groups of size two (the parents) are drawn from the global population and groups of size N (the siblings) are drawn from their gametes.
		Selection can operate entirely at the group level (as it does in figure 3a and d) and still be represented in terms of individual fitnesses simply because the average A2 (or A5) is more fit than the average A1 (or A3).
		Group selection is often studied as a mechanism for the evolution of altruism.
	www.bbsonline.org /documents/a/00/00/04/60/bbs00000460-00/bbs.wilson.html (20375 words)

	Comparison Group Selection Service (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		The Comparison Group Selection Service (CGSS) is designed to aid institutions in selecting a group of institutions which are similar in mission to be used in comparative data analyses.
		The Selection Criteria section of the criteria form is used to exclude from consideration institutions which differ from the target institution in several different institutional characteristics.
		The list you select should be defensible as being rational and reflective of the actual mission of your institution unless the group's clear intended use is as an aspirational group rather than a peer group.
	www.nchems.org /InfoServices/newpage7.htm (4133 words)

	The KLI Theory Lab - keywords - group selection
		Wade, M.J. The primary characteristics of Tribolium populations group selected for increased and decreased population size.
		Wade, M.J. Group selection for increased and decreased competitive ability in subdivided populations of flour beetles.
		Wade, M.J. McCauley, D.E. Group selection: The interaction of local deme size and migration on the differentiation of small populations.
	www.kli.ac.at /theorylab/Keyword/G/GroupSel.html (854 words)

	Group Selection Theory: Lessons learned
		Griffing (1967) extended selection theory to take into consideration interactions of genotypes. The conceptual biological model was extended to define the group and the usual model was extended to include not only direct effects of its own genes, but also associate contributions from other genotypes in the group.
		positive selection will reduce rather than increase the mean. This results because a gene which has a positive direct advantage for the individual has a negative associate effect on the group. The prediction of this theory, that individual selection will have a negative impact on the group, is evident from the previous section.
		Competition has a major impact on growth in swine Group selection applied in poultry has been shown to overcome similar problems may be of tremendous benefit to the swine industry.
	mark.asci.ncsu.edu /nsif/01proc/muir.htm (2299 words)

	Gene Expression: ALTRUISM AND GROUP SELECTION
		I didn’t intend to comment at length on this subject just yet, but there is evidently some disagreement on the meaning of ‘group selection’, and it may help if I say what I mean by it myself.
		Historically, biologists in the generations after Darwin attempted to resolve the problem by arguing that among social animals altruistic behaviour would be beneficial to the group in which they lived, and that this group benefit might offset the individual disadvantage.
		Group selection involving entirely unrelated individuals (or ones whose degree of genetic relatedness is undefined) begs the question of how group membership and identity is defined, anyway.
	www.gnxp.com /MT2/archives/000223.html (1804 words)

	Flu Wiki - Consequences - Group Selection
		There is no limit to the number of family, friends, neighbors, and other like-minded people who can be a part of it, though it would be most effective if these people were to ride out the pandemic in close proximity.
		Group interactions in the best of situations are complex, unfolding, and dynamic.
		Creating an agreement that proffers positive attitudes, cleanliness, attentiveness to activities that benefit the group (i.e., chores), and the absence of complaining can go a long way toward mentally preparing everyone for the mindset a severe pandemic will require.
	www.fluwikie.com /pmwiki.php?n=Consequences.GroupSelection (854 words)

	Harms: Group Selection Calculator (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		Small groups are more prone to sampling error than large groups, so the effect can be expected to be more pronounced for small groups.
		The window gives you information about the contribution to the global population of the various types of groups after play and growth, the internal cooperator frequencies according to group type, and also the global contribution to cooperator frequency from each group type.
		(All groups of a type have the same internal frequency characteristics.) Each time you hit the global population breaks up into groups of the specified size where play and growth occurs for the specified number of iterations.
	www.ethics.ubc.ca /eame/eameweb/Simulators/GroupCalc/GroupCalc.html (237 words)

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