inclusive fitness

American  

noun

Biology.

1. the fitness of an individual organism as measured in terms of the survival and reproductive success of its kin, each relative being valued according to the probability of shared genetic information, an offspring or sibling having a value of 50 percent and a cousin 25 percent.

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Example Sentences

The lowering of individual fitness to enhance the reproductive fitness of a relative and thus one’s inclusive fitness evolves through kin selection.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

In this, Wilson is very much in the minority; Richard Dawkins has called his criticisms of inclusive fitness “downright perverse.”

From The New Yorker • Sep. 10, 2018

Cannibals that consume their own relatives remove those genes from the population, reducing what scientists call their inclusive fitness.

From New York Times • Jan. 30, 2017

He outlined the framework of something called inclusive fitness, which is the sum of the effects of an individual’s actions on its own and others’ reproduction.

From Scientific American • Dec. 1, 2015

One of the key ideas to explain this has been kin selection theory or inclusive fitness, which argues that individuals cooperate according to how they are related.

From Slate • Apr. 30, 2012