Talk:Group selection

Evolutionary benefit of belonging to groups

We see groups extremely many places in nature and among humans, so there must obviously be some benefit of belonging to a group. These can range from cells in an organism or social insects with more or less identical sets of genes, benefitting from acting together, to groups giving possibilities for cooperation in care for offspring, mating opportunities, territory claims, defense, hunting, learning, division of labour, trade and much more, in structures ranging from schools of fish or flocks of birds to humans forming schools or nations together. So an individual may increase its individual fitness by becoming member of a group, the group thereby increases its group fitness when more indiviuals join, which in turn increases the fitness of the individuals even further. This should be pointed out in the article. Connections between biochemistry and fields like game theory and sociology could be used as theoretical framework.
joreberg
~2026-55832-2 (talk) 12:37, 26 January 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for discussing. That is already discussed, at length, in the article (indeed, it's a core aspect of the topic); biologists call it inclusive fitness, which does not presuppose group selection as such. Chiswick Chap (talk) 12:52, 26 January 2026 (UTC)