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Science 5 April 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5565, pp. 72 - 75
DOI: 10.1126/science.1065507
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Review

Cooperation and Competition Between Relatives

Stuart A. West,* Ido Pen,dagger Ashleigh S. Griffin

Individuals are predicted to behave more altruistically and less competitively toward their relatives, because they share a relatively high proportion of their genes (e.g., one-half for siblings and one-eighth for cousins). Consequently, by helping a relative reproduce, an individual passes its genes to the next generation, increasing their Darwinian fitness. This idea, termed kin selection, has been applied to a wide range of phenomena in systems ranging from replicating molecules to humans. Nevertheless, competition between relatives can reduce, and even totally negate, the kin-selected benefits of altruism toward relatives. Recent theoretical work has clarified the processes and selective forces underlying this effect and has demonstrated the generality of the effect of competition between relatives.

Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stu.west{at}ed.ac.uk.

dagger    Present address: Theoretical Biology, Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, NL-9751NN Haren, Netherlands.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)