Our discussion of behavior has focused mostly on behavior in individual animals. We’ve covered, for example, fixed action patterns, deprivation experiments, genetic determinants, development, and physiological mechanisms. Yet most behavior takes place in a social context. Social behavior and its evolution became a field of study in its own right in 1975, with the publication of E. O. Wilson’s landmark book Sociobiology.
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Reproductive success of genetically related individuals contributes to an animal’s inclusive fitness.
Eusocial systems include nonreproductive members.
The evolution of social behavior can be analyzed using a cost-
Mating, parenting, group behaviors such as migration, and group living such as in animal colonies all involve interactions among individuals, and selection operates on all participants in these interactions.