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Evolutionary Stability, Co-operation and Hamilton’s Rule

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Abstract

Accordingto Hamilton’s(1964a, b) rule,a cost lyaction will be undertaken if its fitness cost to the actor falls short of the discounted benefit to the recipient,where the discount factor is Wright’s index of relatedness between the two. We propose a generalization of this rule,and show that if evolution operates at the level of behavior rules, rather than directly at the level of actions, evolution will select behavior rules that induce a degree of cooperation that may differ from that predicted by Hamilton’s rule as applied to actions. In social dilemmas there will be less(more)cooperation than under Hamilton’s rule if the actions are strategic substitutes(complements).Ourapproach is based on natural selection, defined in terms of personal(direct)fitness, and applies to a wide range of pair wise interactions.

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  • Ingela Alger & Jörgen W. Weibull, 2010. "Evolutionary Stability, Co-operation and Hamilton’s Rule," Carleton Economic Papers 10-11, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 18 Jan 2011.
    • Handle: RePEc:car:carecp:10-11
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    1. Bergstrom, Theodore C, 1995. "On the Evolution of Altruistic Ethical Rules for Siblings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 58-81, March.
    2. Ingela Alger, 2010. "Public Goods Games, Altruism, and Evolution," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 12(4), pages 789-813, August.
    3. Robson, A.J., 1989. "Efficiency In Evolutionary Games: Darwin, Nash And Secret Handshake," Papers 89-22, Michigan - Center for Research on Economic & Social Theory.
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    6. Theodore C. Bergstrom, 2003. "The Algebra of Assortative Encounters and the Evolution of Cooperation," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 211-228.
    7. Durrett, Richard & Levin, Simon A., 2005. "Can stable social groups be maintained by homophilous imitation alone?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 267-286, July.
    8. Ok, Efe A. & Vega-Redondo, Fernando, 2001. "On the Evolution of Individualistic Preferences: An Incomplete Information Scenario," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 231-254, April.
    9. Gilbert Roberts & Thomas N. Sherratt, 1998. "Development of cooperative relationships through increasing investment," Nature, Nature, vol. 394(6689), pages 175-179, July.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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