Abstract
In situations involving a single relative in distress and several potential helpers, the advantage of leaving the risky job of aiding the relative in need to any of the other potential helpers is quite obvious. Hence, even in Hamilton's condition for altruism in the one-to-one situation is satisfied, it might seem that altruistic behaviour would not evolve if there is more than one potential helper. The evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) of helping behaviour in situations involving several potential helpers and a necessarily instantaneous response are examined here. If Hamilton's condition is met, the ESS is usually a mixed strategy of altruism and selfishness, with a decreasing (yet positive) probability of helping as the number of potential helpers increases. -from Authors
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 550-566 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | American Naturalist |
Volume | 132 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1988 |
Externally published | Yes |