The evolution of morality and the end of economic man

1871 saw the publication of two major treatises in economics, with self-seeking economic man at their center. In the same year Darwin published The Descent of Man, which emphasized sympathy and cooperation as well as self-interest, and contained a powerful argument that morality has evolved in humans by natural selection. Essentially this stance is supported by modern research. This paper considers the nature of morality and how it has evolved. It reconciles Darwin's notion that a developed morality requires language and deliberation (and is thus unique to humans), with his other view that moral feelings have a long-evolved and biologically-inherited basis. The social role of morality and its difference with altruism is illustrated by an agent-based simulation. The fact that humans combine both moral and selfish dispositions has major implications for the social sciences and obliges us to abandon the pre-eminent notion of selfish economic man. Economic policy must take account of our moral nature.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The evolution of cooperative breeding by direct and indirect fitness effects.

The evolution of cooperative breeding has been traditionally attributed to the effect of kin selection. While there is increasing empirical evidence that direct fitness benefits are relevant, the relative importance of alternative selection mechanisms is largely obscure. Here, we model the coevolution of the cornerstones of cooperative breeding, delayed dispersal, and alloparental care, across different ecological scenarios while allowing individuals to adjust philopatry and helping levels. Our results suggest that (i) direct fitness benefits from grouping are the main driver for the evolution of philopatry; (ii) kin selection is mainly responsible for the emergence of alloparental care, but group augmentation can be a sufficient promoter in harsh environments; (iii) the coevolution of philopatry and alloparental care is subject to positive feedback; and (iv) age-dependent dispersal is triggered by both group benefits and relatedness. Model predictions are supported by empirical data and provide good opportunities for comparative analyses and experimental tests of causality

Genetic relatedness and socioecology of wild Hanuman langur monkeys

This genetic study is based on a geographically isolated population of Hanuman langurs that live around the city of Jodhpur, north-west Rajasthan. Here, the majority of langurs live in harem troops (with a single resident male for 95% of the troop's history) and bachelor bands. Behavioural studies of these langurs suggest that the troops are matrilineal, with males being the dispersing sex. It has therefore been hypothesised that females of a troop are closely related, both through their mothers and through cohorts sharing the same father. This would explain the high levels of cooperation seen between females, such as allogrooming and home range defence. Conversely, members of all male bands, particularly the young adults who control the bands' movements, are unlikely to be related, because of the constantly changing membership and the high mortality rate suffered by the nomadic males. This study has tested these hypotheses using non-invasive techniques to obtain DNA samples from troops and bands in the population. 89 individuals of five troops and one band have been genotyped at eight polymorphic microsatellite loci. Analysis of the microsatellite data using Queller and Goodnight's RELATEDNESS and KINSHIP programs has shown that on average, troops are related by 0.17 ± 0.04, troop females by 0.14 ± 0.07, and non-adult troop members by 0.27 ± 0.07. Conversely, the relatedness of the band was only 0.05 ± 0.08. In three troops the resident male could not be excluded as the father of any non-adult, suggesting that these residents had had long term mating monopoly in these troops, whereas in the remaining two troops where takeover had recently occurred, the new residents could be excluded as fathers in all but 2/12 cases. Additionally, the population proved to be highly structured, and troops appeared outbred, an indication of female philopatry combined with polygyny. These results provide genetic evidence in support of the social organisation suggested from long-term behavioural data

Contributions to the 4th young scientists workshop on agricultural development in Central and Eastern Europe

This Discussion Paper contains the greater part of the contributions to the Young Scientists Workshop on Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO, September 4-5, 2006). After last years' positive response, the workshop has been organized for the fourth time and has a solid number of contributions. The aim of this annual event is to give young scientists the opportunity to present and discuss their transition-related research. The following short versions of the workshop contributions serve as a basis for discussion during the workshop, but also offer a cross-sectional overview of current research being carried out by young scientists. Although the issues covered by the workshop contributions are quite diverse, they share a common interest in evaluating the impact of institutional and policy changes on agricultural and rural development at the current stage of transition. Regionally, the contributions focus on the new member states of the European Union, as well as countries of South Eastern Europe. -- G E R M A N V E R S I O N: Dieses Diskussionspapier enthält den größten Teil der Beiträge, die im Rahmen des Workshops zur Agrarentwicklung in Mittel- und Osteuropa für Doktoranden und kürzlich auch Promovierte vorgestellt und diskutiert werden. Dieser Workshop findet zum vierten Mal am IAMO statt, dieses Jahr vom 4. bis 5. September. Ziel der Veranstaltung ist es, Nachwuchswissenschaftlern die Möglichkeit zu geben, ihre Forschungsvorhaben zu präsentieren und zu diskutieren. Die folgenden Kurzfassungen sollen allerdings nicht nur als Diskussionsgrundlage für den Workshop dienen, sondern auch einen kleinen Überblick über die gegenwärtige Nachwuchsforschung im Agrarbereich zu Mittel- und Osteuropa vermitteln. Auch wenn die Workshopbeiträge ein sehr breites Themenspektrum abdecken, beschäftigen sie sich alle mit der Analyse der Wirkung von politischen und institutionellen Änderungen auf die Entwicklung ländlicher Räume und des Agrarsektors im gegenwärtigen Stadium des Transformationsprozesses. Regional konzentrieren sich die Beiträge auf die neuen Mitgliedsländer der Europäischen Union und die Länder Südosteuropas.

Social niche construction: evolutionary explanations for cooperative group formation

Cooperative behaviours can be defined as those that benefit others at an apparent cost to self. How these kinds of behaviours can evolve has been a topic of great interest in evolutionary biology, for at first sight we would not expect one organism to evolve to help another. Explanations for cooperation rely on the presence of a population structure that clusters cooperators together, such that they enjoy the benefits of each others' actions. But, the question that has been left largely unaddressed is, how does this structure itself evolve? If we want to really explain why organisms cooperate, then we need to explain not just their adaptation to their social environment, but why they live in that environment.It is well-known that individual genetic traits can affect population structure; an example is extracellular matrix production by bacteria in a biofilm. Yet, the concurrent evolution of such traits with social behaviour is very rarely considered. We show here that social behaviour can exert indirect selection pressure on population structure-modifying traits, causing individuals to adaptively modify their population structure to support greater cooperation. Moreover, we argue that any component of selection on structure modifying traits that is due to social behaviour must be in the direction of increased cooperation; that component of selection cannot be in favour of the conditions for greater selfishness. We then examine the conditions under which this component of selection on population structure exists. Thus, we argue that not only can population structure drive the evolution of cooperation, as in classical models, but that the benefits of greater cooperation can in turn drive the evolution of population structure - a positive feedback process that we call social niche construction.We argue that this process is necessary in providing an adaptive explanation for some of the major transitions in evolution (such as from single- to multi- celled organisms, and from solitary insects to eusocial colonies). Any satisfactory account of these transitions must explain how the individuals came to live in a population structure that supported high degrees of cooperation, as well as showing that cooperation is individually advantageous given that structure