Sociobiology

Sociobiology studies how natural selection shapes social behavior in animals, including humans. It explains social traits through their effects on survival and reproduction.

Inclusive fitness: An organism’s evolutionary success measured by its effects on its own reproduction and that of related individuals. It explains how helping relatives can spread genes shared with them.
Natural selection: A process in which heritable traits that improve reproductive success become more common across generations. It is the central process sociobiology invokes to explain behavioral adaptation.
Edward O. Wilson: An American biologist whose 1975 book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis helped establish sociobiology as a field. His book gave the field its influential modern synthesis and name.
Eusociality: A social system marked by cooperative brood care, overlapping generations, and reproductive division of labor. Insect societies offer striking cases for explaining cooperation and reproductive conflict.
Sociobiology debate: A scientific and political dispute over evolutionary explanations of social behavior, especially claims about human nature. The field's claims prompted arguments about determinism, evidence, and political misuse.
Kin selection: Natural selection favoring traits that increase the reproductive success of genetic relatives. It accounts for apparently self-sacrificing behavior toward relatives.
Behavioral ecology: The study of how ecological conditions shape the evolution of animal behavior. It provides a closely related framework for explaining behavior through fitness consequences.
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis: Edward O. Wilson's 1975 book applying evolutionary theory to social behavior across animal groups. This book became a central statement of sociobiology's scope and ambitions.
Parent-offspring conflict: Evolutionary conflict arising because parents and offspring have different genetic interests in resource allocation. It applies kinship-based reasoning to tension within families.
Nature versus nurture: A debate about how genetic inheritance and environmental experience contribute to traits and behavior. Sociobiology made the interplay of inherited tendencies and social environments a public issue.

Linked from 12 pages