Social Behaviors and Game Theory

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts related to social behaviors, cooperation, altruism, game theory, and evolutionary strategies.

Cooperative Behavior

A behavior that benefits two or more individuals when adopted, leading to improved outcomes for all involved.

Altruism

A behavior that increases another individual's fitness at the expense of the individual performing the behavior.

Eusociality

A social structure characterized by overlapping generations, cooperative breeding, and division of labor, commonly seen in species such as ants and bees.

Game Theory

A mathematical framework used to model the strategic interactions between rational decision-makers, often applied to understand cooperation and conflict in evolutionary biology.

Hawk-Dove Game

An evolutionary model that illustrates the conflict between two strategies: aggressive (hawk) and peaceful (dove) interactions over resources.

Reciprocity

An evolutionary concept where cooperation is favored through repeated interactions between individuals, leading to beneficial outcomes for both.

Prisoner's Dilemma

A scenario in game theory illustrating how two individuals might not cooperate even if it is in their best interest to do so, demonstrating the conflict between individual reward and mutual benefit.

Hamilton's Rule

A principle stating that altruistic behavior can evolve if the cost to the actor is less than the benefit to the recipient multiplied by their relatedness (rb > c).

Inclusive Fitness

The total fitness of an individual, considering both direct fitness from their own offspring and indirect fitness from helping relatives produce offspring.

Kin Selection

An evolutionary strategy favoring the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction.