Lost Random Chatter
Monday, June 27, 2005
co-operation - a convenient fabrication?
An excerpt from my animal behaviour essay due in on Friday -
"In a biparental system, offspring fitness is a result of care from both parents, while the cost is incurred by each parent as per its individual investment. Individuals that leave most of the parental workload on their partner would do well in minimising the costs of the current reproductive attempt and at the same time insure their success through their partner’s effort. The ‘classical’ picture of the two parents slaving over care of their offspring, each putting in its individual maximum into the ‘family’ can be replaced with the idea of two ‘work-shirking’ individuals, each trying to get away with the minimum possible investment."
And in a similar manner, all examples of co-operation unravel upon closer scrutiny....
"In a biparental system, offspring fitness is a result of care from both parents, while the cost is incurred by each parent as per its individual investment. Individuals that leave most of the parental workload on their partner would do well in minimising the costs of the current reproductive attempt and at the same time insure their success through their partner’s effort. The ‘classical’ picture of the two parents slaving over care of their offspring, each putting in its individual maximum into the ‘family’ can be replaced with the idea of two ‘work-shirking’ individuals, each trying to get away with the minimum possible investment."
And in a similar manner, all examples of co-operation unravel upon closer scrutiny....
posted by Runglee # 2:12 AM 
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ooooh. classic game theoretic stuff. Also called The Prisoner's Dilemma or the free-rider problem. Always knew it had applications in Animal Behavior (considering that humans are, after all, animals)
Yep, animal behaviour steals a lot from economics including your terminology. Tons of interesting papers out there if u are interested!
Now that u mention it, i got interested in the evolution of animal behaviour mainly to gain an insight into human behaviour..
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Now that u mention it, i got interested in the evolution of animal behaviour mainly to gain an insight into human behaviour..
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