Question

Regarding cooperation and altruistic…

Part A Why is cooperative behavior easier to explain purely with individual-level fitness than the altruistic behavior is?

Part B What circumstances DO favor the evolution of altruistic behavior?

Answer 1

Part A: Although cooperative and altruistic, both behaviors are important for the fitness of a species. In case of altruistic an organism desire to increase the fitness of its genes, so that conspecific member can pass on these trait to another generation and so on. In case of cooperative behavior, they don’t need to sacrifice their own life. They can overall live in a big group and maintain sociobiology for the maximum fitness, for example Apis mellifera (honey bees).

Part B: It is very interesting fact you may observe in social insect and not all members are reproductively competent to reproduce successfully. In most of the case altruistic behaviour evolved in sterile insect and this key factor for the evolution of altruism in them. Majority of the members of the hive are sterile and cant reproduce so they help queen to do this system for their progeny as workers and queens are same by genotype and by this process workers can also save their genes (or further help) or further transfer from one generation to another. Example: Honey bees, Ants and other social insects.