Can Animals Be Spiteful?

Gadagkar, Raghavendra (1993) Can Animals Be Spiteful? In: Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 8 (7). pp. 232-234.

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Abstract

LOGIC SUGGESTS that when members of a species interact with each other at least nine kinds of consequence are possible, because both actors and recipients may benefit (+), suffer (-1) or experience no effect (0) (Box 1). When both the actor and the recipient benefit from an interaction (+,+), it is termed cooperation; this is widespread in the living world. When the actor benefits and the recipient suffers (+,-), the interaction is termed selfishness, which is even more abundant in the living world. When the actor suffers while the recipient benefits (-,+), the interaction is termed altruism. Compared to cooperation and selfishness, altruism is less common; nevertheless there are many examples of it in the animal kingdom. Altruism is not so easy to explain as cooperation or selfishness, but much has been learnt about its evolution in the last 25 years.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Publisher:	Elsevier
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	27 Feb 2007
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:34
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/9457

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