kin selection

American  

noun

Biology.

1. a form of natural selection that favors altruistic behavior toward close relatives resulting in an increase in the altruistic individual's genetic contribution to the next generation.

---

kin selection British  

noun

1. biology natural selection resulting from altruistic behaviour by animals towards members of the same species, esp their offspring or other relatives

---

Example Sentences

And this, says Robert Poulin, a parasitologist at the University of Otago who was not involved, is “a really cool case of kin selection pushed to the extreme.”

From Science Magazine • Sep. 21, 2023

“Everybody is chasing the same goal, and kin selection gives them incentives” Dr. Creel said.

From New York Times • Jun. 20, 2022

The theory of kin selection holds that helping relatives can improve an individual’s evolutionary fitness because related individuals share a large proportion of their genes.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2018

The biologist William D. Hamilton made an end run around this problem in 1964 by invoking a strategy that Maynard Smith had called kin selection.

From Scientific American • Jul. 17, 2017

While those who advocate group selection offer evidence gathered under certain laboratory conditions, there is no question that kin selection has been enormously productive during the past 50 years.

From Slate • Apr. 3, 2014