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The costs and benefits of resource sharing: reciprocity requires resource heterogeneity
Author(s) -
WHITLOCK M. C.,
DAVIS B. H.,
YEAMAN S.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01387.x
Subject(s) - reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , kin selection , inclusive fitness , resource (disambiguation) , shared resource , natural selection , biology , reproductive value , selection (genetic algorithm) , value (mathematics) , natural resource , microeconomics , evolutionary biology , economics , computer science , ecology , social psychology , psychology , genetics , pregnancy , computer network , artificial intelligence , machine learning , offspring
The evolution of resource sharing requires that the fitness benefits to the recipients be much higher than the costs to the giver, which requires heterogeneity among individuals in the fitness value of acquiring additional resources. We develop four models of the evolution of resource sharing by either direct or indirect reciprocity, with equal or unequal partners. Evolution of resource sharing by reciprocity requires differences between interacting individuals in the fitness value of the resource, and these differences must reverse although previous acts of giving are remembered and both participants survive. Moreover, inequality in the expected reproductive value of the interacting individuals makes reciprocity more difficult to evolve, but may still allow evolution of sharing by kin selection. These constraints suggest that resource sharing should evolve much more frequently by kin selection than by reciprocity, a prediction that is well supported by observations in the natural world.