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 2010, he turned against inclusive fitness, publishing a paper attacking the concept with Martin A. Nowak of Harvard and Corina E. Tarnita, now at Princeton.

From New York Times • Dec. 27, 2021

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

A school of thought known as inclusive fitness theory—or kin selection—sits at the center of the conflict.

From Slate • Apr. 3, 2014

In it he proposes that inclusive fitness should now be understood as a multilevel selection approach in which there is a nested hierarchy extending from genes, to individuals, to kin, and finally to groups.

From Scientific American • Jul. 9, 2012