Inclusive fitness

1 In a biological sense:
2 Evidence of Inclusive Fitness in Humans:
3 Human Applications of Inclusive Fitness: Open Source Software
4 Inclusive Fitness in the Family Structure
5 Sources

In a biological sense:

Inclusive fitness encompasses conventional Darwinian fitness with the addition of behaviors that contribute to an organisms individual fitness through altruism. An organisms ultimate goal is to leave the maximum number of viable offspring possible, thereby keeping their genes present within a population. Since relatives of an organism are likely to share common genes, an organism may increase its own fitness by keeping its relatives and offspring viable. Kin selection results from this altruistic behavior towards relatives leading to increased fitness in an organism. Inclusive fitness therefore takes into account both the passing of genes from an organism to its offspring and the inheritance of the same genes among relatives and their offspring.

The most obvious examples of increased inclusive fitness can be observed in the altruistic behaviors of parents. To ensure that their genes remain in the gene pool, organisms attempt to give rise to the maximum number of offspring that are sure to survive. Once the offspring are produced, the parents reproductive success is determined by the number of offspring that can then procreate and carry on the family genes. Natural selection therefore favors any genes that code for behaviors that lend themselves to increased fitness. Possibly having a genetic basis, innate behaviors that cause parents to sacrifice their well-being, either in the actually birthing process or in aiding their young, increase the parents fitness, which makes them more reproductively successful and therefore favored by natural selection.

Increasing an organisms inclusive fitness can also involve altruistic behavior towards relatives that have a probability of sharing common genes. For example, Belding ground squirrels give alarm calls to warn the population of ensuing dangers. By emitting the alarm, the Belding ground squirrel puts itself in increased danger by giving away its location. In the process, however, the squirrel protects its relatives that live within the population. In further studies, it has been shown that willingness of the squirrel to put itself at risk is directly proportional to how closely related it is to members of its population. Therefore, if protecting the other squirrels in the immediate area will lead to the passing on of more of the squirrels genes than the squirrel could leave by reproducing on its own, the squirrel is willing to sacrifice itself, which leads to greater inclusive fitness.

Evidence of Inclusive Fitness in Humans:

Human behavior is generally much more complicated than other organisms making it difficult to define human behavior in general organism terms. However, evidence for human altruistic behavior leading to increased inclusive fitness has been observed. While there exists clear evidence towards increased inclusive fitness through altruistic behaviors on behalf of parents and children, much sacrificial behavior by humans is generally done in the hope of reciprocation at some point in the future. Therefore, increasing inclusive fitness in humans is not necessarily dependent upon relatedness. Rather, it is commonly based on reciprocal altruism.

Human Applications of Inclusive Fitness: Open Source Software

Inclusive fitness may be applied to human experiences in many ways. Certain proposed applications include the relationship of inclusive fitness to the open source movement and more obviously to the family structure.

The spread of knowledge is increasing moving from analog to digital in modern society. With this trend, open source software, such as Wiki, allows many members of society to contribute to the increasing wealth of knowledge on the internet. Much of this behavior, with people willing to place their personal knowledge in the public domain, reveals altruistic behavior that leads to greater inclusive fitness. Howard Rheingold explores this behavior in Smart Mobs. People are willing to place their knowledge into the public domain for their own personal benefit, although the sharing is altruistic. Humans become capable of increasing their inclusive fitness by maintaining their status in their respected specialty (ie. software programming) while benefiting at a later time from the increased sharing of knowledge.

While it has been contested that humans do not contribute to open source software simply to increase their inclusive fitness, the interpretation based on inclusive fitness provides one explanation for the growing move towards open source works. Humans generally display reciprocal altruism, which includes altruistic behaviors that involve the hope that the benefiting animal will one day return the favor. In open source software, Linux users frequently make changes to the software in hopes of bettering it. The future of Linux depends on users improving the software continually over time. Faith in fellow software users is therefore an intrinsic part of the program. A user betters the software believing that future users will make further useful changes. Reciprocal altruism is thus implied. Altruism is a critical component of inclusive fitness, leading to the conclusion that when a user improves the software, he or she plans on improving their own plight. Through contributing their abilities, the software is bettered. The self-sacrificing behavior ultimately leads to improvements that will one day benefit the initial user.

Inclusive fitness can be applied in the same manner to file sharing. Humans attempt to better their survival, so to speak, in the technological world by placing files on the internet. They contribute their personal property for communal use, placing themselves in danger of copyright infringements. However, the benefits of the behavior increase the likelihood that the sharer will ultimately benefit from the reciprocal behaviors of other file sharers.