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How do identical twins affect the working out of this Hamiltonian equation then? Surely in the case of twins who share 100% of DNA factor r is 1 and any genes for altruistic behaviour towards siblings will be selected for on a simple one to one cost/benefit analysis if the recipient benefits more than the donor loses out?
Obviously human beings do not produce twins very often, so perhaps there is only a minor effect from this in humans, which gets swamped by regular sibling-strategy genes. But am I correct in thinking that some species (Polar Bears?) pretty much always produce twins, and therefore are much more likely to exhibit sibling-altruism phenotypes than species that don't?
Permalink Thu, 24 May 2012 17:17:13 UTC | #943315